Great Books Week

Poster courtesy: http://greatbooks.naiwe.com/

GREAT BOOKS WEEK (Oct. 7-13) begins today. This year they are celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the publication of Victor Hugo’s LES MISERABLES.  I’ve never read it, but I’ll try to pick up a copy at the library next time I go.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with reviews of some of the "Great Books" I have read recently:




BLACK ELK SPEAKS: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by Black Elk (as told through John G. Neihardt) (244)
©1932   Black Elk, a young cousin of Crazy Horse, had a great vision when he was only nine years old, which led him to become a medicine man before he was 20. He was illiterate and unable to understand English, so the stories he tells are through an interpreter and written down by the author in 1931. The book tells of his early life during the time of the big change, when white settlers were moving across the plains in vast numbers, and the U.S. Cavalry was in charge of keeping them and the miners seeking the gold of the Black Hills safe. So many broken treaties by the U.S. government led to the bitter Indian Wars.

This book was both beautiful in its Native American mysticism and heartbreaking in it’s violence and despair. There was one uproariously funny story about an Indian brave of the tribe trying to win the heart and hand of a beautiful young maiden. Black Elk also related stories of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the betrayal, arrest and killing Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

Black Elk was a truly wise old man who said: “You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round…The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. …Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. …Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and they were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.
But the Wasichus [white men] have put us in these square boxes [cabins and shacks]. Our power is gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us anymore. You can look at our boys and see how it was with us. When we were living by the power of the circle in the way we should, boys were men at twelve or thirteen years of age. But now it takes them very much longer to mature.”

This book should be required reading in high school history classes, so future generations will always remember how disgracefully the Native Americans were treated by land- and resource-hungry whites and the U.S. government. It, like slavery, is a bloody blot on our nation’s history that I’m sure many people would rather forget.


RAMONA - Helen Hunt Jackson (424)
©1884 A very old story about the early history of California and the injustices that Mexicans and Indians alike suffered when the U.S. came to own the region and ruthlessly kicked them off their land, as our government opened it up to white settlers.

This is the moving, though sometimes sentimental, love story of the beautiful, young, half-Indian/half-white orphan Ramona, who was raised as a foster child on a rich Mexican estate, and an Indian shepherd named Alessandro, who wins her heart when he and his people go there to shear the hacienda’s sheep.

The novel was written to call attention to the plight of Native Americans, much as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin did for slaves. This book from the late 19th century has never been out of print, with over 300 reissues. If you like history and romance, Ramona has plenty of both.

[sidenote] My family lived in Ramona, California (named after the book’s heroine) when I was in kindergarten and first grade. I have also visited Helen Hunt Falls in Colorado Springs, Colorado twice --- it’s named after the successful author, who moved to Colorado Springs in 1873 for health reasons. 


GIANTS IN THE EARTH - O. E. Rolvaag (453)
©1927 An epic novel of Norwegian immigrants settling the Great Plains at the end of the 19th century. I don’t know of any book that has captured the harsh, unforgiving environment or the sturdy determination of the settlers better than this one. I especially felt for the wife/mother in this story, who suffered miserable depression from the utter silence, expansiveness and loneliness of the prairie. If you like stories of perserverence in the face of hardship and neighbor helping neighbor to survive, I recommend this one for your reading pleasure.

Look What I Found

I'm sorting and boxing up books that are scattered about the house today. Boxes are labeled My Library (books I've read and want to keep), TBR, and Giveaway (I'll probably drop them off at the Goodwill store). Some of these books I haven't even seen for about 20 years! And then I came across a stack of booklets I bought when I was a kid. 

I must have been about 12, because that's when an older teenage friend of the family got drafted and sent to Vietnam. Before he left, he gave his old horse to me and my sister. Big mistake! Queenie had been rode hard by a teenage boy who knew how to handle her. For two little girls with almost no riding experience, she was downright mean and dangerous. :o( A real disappointment!

To learn more about horses, we answered an ad we'd read in Western Horseman magazine for a course in Horse Training from the Beery School of Horsemanship, of Pleasant Hill, Ohio. When they sent back info, the course cost a lot of money --- something like $25, a lot of money for two kids in the '60s who only made $1 an hour babysitting and $1 a week allowance.

We had to really badger our mom to loan us the money, but we did get the booklets. Along with the basic horse training set, they included three other sets of booklets: Saddle Horse Instructions (about English-style riding), How to Ride and Train the Western Horse, and Home Course in Animal Breeding. I really loved these booklets and learned alot about riding from them. Oh, and the course in animal breeding was my introduction to the topic of sex, with its crudely drawn pictures of the reproductive organs of horses, cows and pigs and it's descriptions of animals breeding, with forbidden words like vag*** and pen** (we CAN say those words now, right?) LOL! 

Professor Jesse Beery (1861-1945)  was a true pioneer in the field of horse training.  For 16 years he toured the country, demonstrating his training skills at county fairs and expositions. Then in 1905, when he realized he was becoming overwhelmed with demands for his performances, he went back home to Pleasant Hill, Ohio and began a very successful mail-order course in horsemanship. 

His first edition of the booklets came out around 1908-1909, with reprintings in the 1940s, 1960s (mine), and 1970s. I searched on-line and discovered that these books are indeed rare and collectible.  The 8 book basic  set I have is selling for $125 in excellent condition.  The Saddle Horse set is worth $65 and the breeding course is $50. The complete 30 book set  is worth $300 in excellent condition. Mine is in very good, used condition with a few stains, and two books missing from the Western set. But I can sell the ones I do have, individually, for from $10-$25 each

It's really good to find this "blast from the past." Now I need to decide if I want to sell them or not…

A Famous Wager

Photo courtesy of NASA

Today is Phileas Fogg’s Wager Day. In Jules Verne’s adventure novel AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, Fogg bets 20,000 pounds that he can make a tour of the world in eighty days or less. When asked when he would leave on his journey: "This very evening," returned Phileas Fogg. He took out and consulted a pocket almanac, and added, "As today is Wednesday, the 2nd of October [1872], I shall be due in London in this very room of the Reform Club, on Saturday, the 21st of December, at a quarter before nine p.m.; or else the twenty thousand pounds… will belong to you…”


This classic can be read, for free, on-line at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/103/103-h/103-h.htm

A Few Selections from John Steinbeck

Modern Day Monterey, photo courtesy http://pdphoto.org/   Thanks, Jon!

TORTILLA FLAT - John Steinbeck (207)
©1935 This is an early novel of Steinbeck’s, and the one that put him on the road to literary success. The author based his characters on actual people he knew and liked, but the book is still being criticized as a stereotypical view of Hispanics as drunk and lazy.

The dialog of the characters is also strange. They use words like “thee,” “thou” and “thine,” which threw me off a little, because Mexican-Americans don’t speak like that.  In the author’s biography I read recently, it said that this book was based on the Arthurian legends that Steinbeck read and enjoyed so much as a boy.

That said, the story is not much of a story, but more of a character sketch: in this case, the character is Tortilla Flat, a shabby village on the outskirts of Monterey, California where the jobless and homeless and poor paisanos live a hand-to-mouth existence. The reader gets to know the parish priest, shady ladies, local business people, and a band of drunken, petty thieves quite well.

Danny is a young man who returns from service in WW1 to find that he has inherited two houses in Tortilla Flat from his grandfather. He invites a friend to rent one of his houses, and the friend invites a friend, and the house gets sublet a number of times, but nobody pays any rent. When the house accidentally burns to the ground, its occupants move in with Danny. At any one time there could be 6 men and 5 dogs living in Danny’s house. Only Danny has a bed. Everyone else sleeps on the floor.
This set-up reminds me of the hippie communes of the late 60s. Somebody would rent a house, then invite a friend to share the rent, who invites a friend, and pretty soon you have one crowded house where nobody is working or paying rent. Instead they’re partying all day and night.

Steinbeck’s little round-table group spend much of their time drinking wine, chasing women, and gossiping about their Tortilla Flat neighbors. Except for occasional work cutting squid for Chin Kee, all these friends are unemployed. They cheat, borrow, beg or steal whatever they need from their neighbors. Their principal activity is getting drunk together.

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking, “Come on, somebody do something!” But by the time I got to the end I realized that I was only reading it superficially, for a plot. So much more is being said here about friendship, loyalty, love, hard times, alcoholism, etc. The characters are well-drawn, lovable bums and the story is lightened with comedy, sharpened with drama, and sweetened with romance. The ending was a surprise to me. I think this is a book I might like to read again someday. I’d also like to see the old 1942 Spencer Tracy movie of it.


CANNERY ROW - John Steinbeck (196)
©1945 This book reminded me a lot of Steinbeck’s earlier novel, Tortilla Flat, except that it is a bit longer and the plot is more involved. Both books were set in the same area (Monterey, California), different neighborhoods, different people. They both featured the lives of the Depression-era poor. Tortilla Flats had a group of six homeless, shiftless vagabonds and five dogs living in one house. Cannery Row had five men and one dog sharing an abandoned warehouse they fixed up and named the Palace Flophouse and Grill. The theme of both books seems to be “Let’s Party!” and even though the characters couldn’t afford to, they found ways to have fun despite the bad times they were going through.

I think the reason Steinbeck was such a brilliant writer is because he wrote about what he knew. He was born in nearby Salinas and lived much of his life in the Monterey area. He got to know the people. One of the main characters in this book, a marine biologist named Doc, is based on his good friend Ed Ricketts who collected and sold marine specimens. Steinbeck often helped him on his collecting trips to tide pools, so he was able to write about such a life convincingly. All of the characters in this book, from Mack and the Boys to shopkeeper Lee Chong to Dora, the outrageous madame of the Bear Flag “restaurant,” are so finely rendered, as is the landscape of the Monterey area and the waterfront district called Cannery Row.

Tortilla Flat was a simple, comedic sketch of a neighborhood and some of its residents. Cannery Row was more like a string of short stories that came together as a heart-warming novel of a poor neighborhood, filled with interesting people, plenty of humor, and friendship. Of the two, I recommend Cannery Row as an introduction to Steinbeck’s literary brilliance.

THE MOON IS DOWN - John Steinbeck (188)

©1942  This minor novel by Steinbeck is a war novel in which the townspeople of an occupied village in Northern Europe resent being taken over by a foreign army. Although he doesn’t name the country, it’s presumed to be Norway, and the town is a strategic coastal shipping center for the coal region. It is also assumed that the invaders are the Nazis.

In 1945, Steinbeck received the Haakon Vll Cross of Freedom for his literary contributions to the Norwegian resistance movement. While not my favorite of his many works, it was still good reading.

 

My Reading Place

Perfect day, a cool-breeze 75 degree afternoon...

I think I'll read a book.

Great Poetry Reading Day

We’re drawing near to the end of April, Poetry Month, with today being GREAT POETRY READING DAY.                  

If you wish to participate, you’re supposed to read some “great” poetry today. I guess what constitutes “great” is in the mind of the reader. Just to be on the safe side, I celebrated by reading some poetry from the literature textbook,  

THE EXPERIENCE OF LITERATURE, edited by Lionell Trilling. Surely poetry found in a college textbook can be considered “great", right? The dozen poems I read for GREAT POETRY READING DAY are:

OUT OF THE CRADLE ENDLESSLY ROCKING - Walt Whitman

A SUPERMARKET IN CALIFORNIA -  Allen Ginsburg

TO AUNT ROSE - Allen Ginsburg

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT -  Dylan Thomas

VARIATION: ODE TO FEAR (Timor mortis conturbat me.)  - Robert Penn Warren

ALL IN GREEN WENT MY LOVE RIDING - E. E. Cummings

THE ELEPHANT IS SLOW TO MATE - D.H. Lawrence

THE SECOND COMING - William Butler Yeats

THE SUBALTERNS - Thomas Hardy

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH - Emily Dickenson

A WOMAN’S LAST WORD - Robert Browning

THE JUMBLIES - Edward Lear

Poem in Your Pocket Day

April is NATIONAL POETRY MONTH and yesterday was POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY. It originated in NYC in 2002 and went nationwide in 2008.  The idea is to carry around a poem in your pocket all day and take it out to share it with family, friends, co-workers, passersby, etc.  I can just see folks in Central Park in NYC doing this --- but in MY town???

The poem I had in my pocket today was Vachel Lindsay’s “The Congo.” (Well, the first of the three parts of this long, excitable poem anyway.) I learned the first part of the poem when I was in the 4^th grade, and I still remember it 4 decades later! I just loved the dramatic way our teacher read it to the class. I still think it’s a great poem that’s meant to be read aloud with gusto! I love this poem!

I was going to my very first ever F2F Book Club Meeting at the public library last night, and the discussion topic just happened to be POETRY!  If I got the chance, I planned to pull it out of my pocket and read it for the folks.

I never got the chance.  After fishing all day, even though I was thoroughly exhausted, I drove the 20 minutes to town and found the library almost deserted. The librarian told me that the Book Group had more or less fizzled out, people had stopped coming. I was so disappointed. I pointed out that the monthly announcements were still posted on the library's website. I left my name & phone number with a note that if anyone wanted to revive the group, I would gladly commit to showing up for the monthly meeting.

I even stopped by the bookstore, but it was closed too. I was wanting to share my poem with them. So in deep dejection, I blew my diet and had a corn dog and a vanilla ice cream, before I hauled my sorry ass home and dropped in to bed at 8 p.m. --- and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I did get my chance to read my poem many times that day, though, practicing reciting it for my dog!

Oh, just in case you want to read the poem here's where you can find it:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/237642
 

Love Those Red Hats!

Bayfield, Wisconsin

 Today is RED HAT SOCIETY DAY.  It all started when Sue Ellen bought a bright red fedora hat on a impulse at a thrift shop.  A few years later, she read a poem called “Warning” written in 1961 by Jenny Joseph which is about an older woman in purple clothing wearing a red hat. The poem begins with the lines: “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.” She liked the poem so much she gave a framed copy of it, along with a red hat, to her friend Linda as a birthday present.  Linda enjoyed the gift so much that Sue Ellen started giving the same gift to other friends. One day they all decided they should dress up in purple (like the lady in the poem) and wear their red hats out to tea together. Soon they were doing this on a regular basis and inviting other friends to join them. As the group became too large, sister groups were formed. Now they hold conventions that fill entire hotels with red hatted women having a great time together. Women over 50 are the “Red Hatters”; those not yet 50 wear pink hats.

This year the Red Hat gals will celebrate their 14th birthday at the Hard Rock Café  - Hollywood.  They are now a global sisterhood of women whose mission is fun, friendship, freedom, fulfillment and fitness. In only five years they’d grown to 40,000 chapters worldwide. For more information, their official website is: http://www.redhatsociety.com/

To read Jenny Joseph’s poem that inspired this sisterhood and, see:

http://www.wheniamanoldwoman.com/pages/348544/index.htm

I first heard about this group while at an artist retreat near Duluth, Minnesota in the summer of 2006. One of our fellow artists was a member and was explaining to us what the group was all about.  Imagine my surprise when one Saturday morning a year later, I happened to spot a small group of “Hatters” while on a self-directed artist retreat in Wisconsin. I was waiting to board a tour boat when I spied this group having their pictures taken on the balcony of their bed and breakfast suite. There appears to be three of them, posing with a sign and holding a couple of extra red hats (maybe for members who couldn’t be with them that day for one reason or another).

Below is my review of Sue Ellen's book:

THE RED HAT SOCIETY: Fun & Friendship After Fifty  - Sue Ellen Cooper (432 pp, LP)
©2004   Maybe, by now, you’ve heard of the Red Hat Society or wondered about those groups of middle-aged women seen frolicking in public dressed in purple and wearing red hats. The Society, whose only rule is “no rules,” just celebrated its 12th anniversary and has grown from a small group of friends (inspired by Jenny Joseph’s poem “Warning”) to a “disorganization” of many chapters in the U.S. and 17 other countries.

The book tells the history of the group, with many inspirational testimonials from members about the fun and friendship they’ve found by starting and joining a chapter. While many people dread the Big 5-0, this book illustrates that one’s Half-Century birthday need not be a time of looking back nostalgically at the great times one enjoyed when she was younger, but can be an awesome adventure in aging gracefully and looking forward to more great times ahead.

Money-Smart Kids

Don't forget to teach the importance of sending thank-you cards!

Today is TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO SAVE DAY. This awareness day was established by the American Banker’s Association Education Foundation to express the importance of teaching our children how to save money, how to set up and use budgets, how interest works to make savings grow, and most importantly (in my opinion anyway) how to recognize the difference between needs and wants.

As a parent of a grown child, I tried to instill sound financial awareness in my now-grown son in the areas of saving, spending and charitable donations. But to him, money burned a hole in his pocket most of the time.

I’m very proud to say that as an adult, he’s finally learned to save, to use credit responsibly, to meet his payment obligations on-time, and to cut down on money wastage (he finally stopped smoking!). So even though you may not think you’re getting through to your kids at the time, sound money management education early on pays off in the long run!

I suggest every parent start a savings account for their first child (and any others that follow) as soon as he or she is born. But don’t just stick some money in it at first, then forget about it. Make a habit of depositing a small amount on a regular  basis (weekly is ideal, so monthly if that suits you better), so your child learns as he or she grows the importance of maintaining a savings habit. As the child gets older, let him make the contributions from a part of his allowance or after-school jobs.

photo courtesy http://pdphoto.org/   Thanks, Jon!

Also, start small. Sure, the lowly penny won’t buy anything nowadays. But a piggy bank or a simple jar with a slot cut in the lid will soon fill with lots of pennies. And when it’s full, it’s so exciting to take your little one to the bank to exchange those pretty copper coins for paper money and then a trip to the store to pick out a special toy or book that they can proudly buy with their own money. Later your kid(s) can graduate to saving larger value coins: nickels, dimes and quarters.

But my favorite tip is to teach your little ones that Mommy and Daddy are not money-dispensing machines and that money doesn’t grow on trees (as old-fashioned as that sounds). Saying no to whim purchases teaches the difference between needs and wants, and encourages them to save for the things they want. There’s always plenty of time when they’re older to learn about credit and plastic.

Here are a couple of good books that teach kids all about money:

THE KIDS' ALLOWANCE BOOK
by Amy Nathan (86 pages)
©1998  This cute and informational book was written for children ages 9-14: to help them learn about allowances, how to ask their parents for one, how to handle their money responsibly, the pros and cons of both chore-based allowances and “just because” allowances, what to do if parents forget to pay up, and how to save.

Parents would also benefit from reading this book, preferably before the discussion of allowances comes up. About half of children in the target age group receive allowances, according to surveys done by Nickelodean TV and Zillions magazine, which is published for kids by Consumer Reports. Many of these children were interviewed about how allowances were handled in their families. I wish I’d read this book when my son was little---I learned a lot of great parenting tips from it, and you can too!

ULTIMATE KID’S MONEY BOOK - Neale S. Godfrey (122)©1998 This really IS the ultimate book about money for kids! It has everything that the average person should know about money (and many don’t). It starts out with a history of money, then talks about making money, spending it, saving it, sharing it, etc.  It also has chapters about how banks work, different accounts you may have, the economy (local, federal and global), investing money, taxes, and government spending. I was amazed at how much useful information is packed into this fun book which could be used to teach a valuable mini-course on finance to kids.

Happy Earth Day! Happy Reading!

photo coutesy:  http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/

Happy Earth Day, fellow Earthlings!

Walk gently, observe joyfully,

Live responsibly and respectfully!

And a special Thank You to Home Depot for the free pine seedling!

LEAVINGS 

byWendell Berry 

I remember this author from way back in the 70s when he wrote for Rodale Press, the Organic Gardening folks. This is a small book of poetry that I really enjoyed because the poems were easy to read and understand. His themes are nature, conservation, and outrage against what modern man has done to the environment. 

THE REDISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA 

by Barry Lopez 

This is a very short book, took about an hour to read, deeply thoughtful, and powerful. It's only 51 pages but the thoughts that he packed into those pages...wow. The book is about about how the Spaniards exploited the New World, from Columbus's time onward, and how we continue to exploit it to this day. Well worth anyone's time to read and contemplate. Highly Recommended.

TEACHING A STONE TO TALK 

byAnnie Dillard 

©1982 Whether she’s in the Arctic, camping along an Ecuadorian rain-forest river, or exploring the Galapagos, Annie Dillard shows us nature in its most colorful detail. Sometimes surprising, always fresh, her writing is exquisite.

THE BEGINNING NATURALIST: Weekly Encounters with the Natural World

by Gale Lawrence 

© 1979 I consider myself an amateur naturalist, but I’m not a beginner. I’ve been blessed to be able to live in the middle of nature for most of my life, and it’s given me a special joy and appreciation that can’t be measured. I still read everything I can get my hands on about the natural world around us, and I always learn something new.          This is an excellent book for people just starting to explore the great outdoors. There are 52 short and easy essays that introduce so many things you could encounter on a walk, if you just keep your eyes open and look around you: plants (some edible), small mammals, frogs, snakes, spiders, beavers, tent caterpillars, birds and so much more.
          Once a person starts exploring the world of nature, a very natural concern about its preservation usually follows. I think everyone would benefit from stepping out of their homes and offices and seeing what they can discover in a part of our lives that is too often overlooked.

THE BEGINNING AND THE END and Other Poems 
by Robinson Jeffers
©1963 These poems, written near the end of Jeffers’ life, were collected from handwritten manuscripts by his sons after his death in 1962 at the age of 75.
          Jeffers lived most of his life at Tor House, a stone house he built by hand for his wife and twin sons on the coast at Carmel, California. He would write poetry during the morning and work on the house in the afternoon. He was a nature poet, and a poet of peace. He was particularly worried about the future, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and how mankind was ravaging the natural world. I like poems that make sense and read well out loud, and his do.

CLABBERED DIRT, SWEET GRASS 
by Gary Paulsen
©1992 A look at old-time farming (with horses) through the seasons, the beauty of Paulsen’s writing is enhanced by the colorful and expressive paintings by his wife, Ruth.

New World (dis)Order

 

A YEAR WITHOUT MADE IN CHINA
by Sara Bongiorni
          ©2007 On January 1, 2005 the author and her family embarked on a New Year’s resolution to boycott things made in China for the coming year. This decision was made after noticing that so many of their Christmas gifts were Chinese imports. With a light, humorous, easy-to-read style, she reports her experiences as she struggles with her husband and small children to keep the boycott going for an entire year.
          The book definitely serves its purpose. It clearly proves Bongiorni’s point that it’s nearly impossible to avoid purchasing items “Made in China,” since that seems to be the country of origin for almost every item we purchase any more.
          I didn't like this book for many reasons. Her motivation for the boycott, as she explained it to her small son, was simplistic and naive: “We like China, but it’s a very big place, with lots of factories and we want to give other countries a chance to sell things to us.” (What about all the American jobs that have been lost to outsourcing to other countries besides China???)
          The author’s 12-month boycott contained so many loopholes, it was ridiculous. I kept thinking, why bother? For example, they could accept gifts from other people that were made in China. So when the wife-mother couldn’t find a non-Chinese inflatable swimming pool for her husband and son, she suggested that her sister-in-law get a Chinese one for her husband’s birthday. Also, items made in Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong were ok, because they weren’t made in China. Or were they? She had a hard time figuring out what was Chinese and what wasn’t.
          This couple's parenting style was annoyingly overindulgent. Half the book was about the stress of finding enough cool, non-Chinese toys to satisfy their children's ever-changing demands. I think the author could have made better use of her time learning how to do without every little toy, gizmo and gadget that came on the market. These people could qualify as the poster family for the out-of-control consumerism that has driven jobs out of our country to places where people live and work in poverty, just because we gotta have it and it better be cheap!
          In writing a "humorous" book about a very serious issue, Bongiorni trivializes the plight of the unemployed or under-employed American worker. She never really ponders how we happen to find ourselves in this increasingly hopeless situation. Her book calls attention to the problem, but offers no explanations or answers. Because of China's dominance of the global economy, and the fact that our government and big business have sold us out to them, we have abandoned American factories, closed stores blighting every American community, millions of Americans without employment, losing the homes they worked all their lives for. This seems to be our fate and our future, and sadly, we never saw it coming.

WHEN CHINA RULES THE WORLD: The End of the Western World & the Birth of a New Global Order 
by Martin Jacques
          ©2009 One day last month, I came across this book while surfing the news channels. Fareed Zakaria was recommending it, and the title caught my attention. It’s been apparent to me for the past 15 years that we were headed in this direction, but I knew so little about the issue.
          This ponderous book is like reading college textbooks for Chinese history, economics and political science all rolled into one. It’s packed full of data, facts, figures, charts, graphs, percentages, GDPs, etc., everything heavily annotated --- and it’s taken me 4 weeks to trudge through it all.
          As I was reading it, I came to realize how little most of us know about China and the Chinese people. I learned a lot, but probably only scratched the surface in my understanding of our global situation. I think it’ll be worth a reread in a couple months.

BRAVE NEW WORLD REVISITED
by Aldous Huxley
          © 1958 I find it very interesting that Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931 with America in mind. On an earlier trip to the United States, he had been disgusted by America’s rampant consumerism, newly-emerging youth culture, and sexual permissiveness, hallmarks of the Roaring 20s. The United States had been experiencing a manufacturing boom, science and technology were rapidly expanding, and truly, a “brave new world” was arriving on the scene.
          His dystopian novel Brave New World “predicts” what the world of the future might look like if things continued on as they were in the early part of the 20th century. The story is set six centuries in the future, in a totalitarian World State whose amusement-addicted citizenry is kept docile and perfectly content by various forms of entertainment, methodical conditioning, and a drug called soma.
In 1958, Huxley published this non-fiction “look back” at his classic to see how far we’d come in 27 years. He admits here that “the prophecies made in 1931 are coming true much sooner than I thought they would.”
          The novel Brave New World was written before the rise of Adolf Hitler to supreme power in Germany. In 1958, Huxley writes a very interesting essay on the terrifyingly effective mind control methods Hitler used to manipulate the German people. He also ponders the widespread use of drugs back then, both prescription and illegal recreational ones, that people relied on to help them get through their unhappy, hectic lives.
          The book actually stunned me, as the things that Huxley explained were already happening in the 27 years between his novel and his commentary --- those things are also happening (times 10, times 20, times 100?) in today’s modern world. Our own amusement-addicted citizens have been kept clueless about the controlling role Big Business and Big Government have played in our lives, starting with the Baby Boomers.
          We grew up being daily brainwashed by the advertisements on TV, which convinced us to desire all the things we didn’t need, probably didn’t even want, and definitely couldn’t afford as we let buy-now-pay-later take over our lives. New and improved, we were fed a steady stream of products pouring forth from the factories, and we over-consumed because we could --- we had JOBS back then.
Huxley’s fear was that people would become so comfortable and so self-centered, they wouldn’t see their enslavement coming, because they would docilely go along with the program as long as their desires were being fulfilled.
          This book, Brave New World Revisited, could very well be Huxley’s most important work, if people would only take the time to read it. I especially encourage those who are presently reading, or who have already read the original BNW, to follow-up with Huxley’s 1958 commentary on the book as a harbinger of things yet to come --- events in the real world that are unfolding at this very moment.. It can be read, for free, on-line at

http://www.huxley.net/bnw-revisited/index.html

 ALSO RECOMMENDED:

THE NEW WORLD ORDER (1939) by H. G. Wells
and
THE NEW WORLD ORDER (1991) by Pat Robertson
Fascinating contrast --- two sides of a hot-button political topic, the POVs of a socialist from the distant past and a Christian 50 years later.

True-life Fire Disasters

Outdoor Mural at the Hinckley Fire Museum, Hinckley, Minnesota

ELD-CYCLONEN ELLER HINCKLEY-BRANDEN
(THE HINCKLEY FIRE)
Gudmund Emanuel Akermark
          ©1894 Written in Swedish (a language predominately spoken in the Northwoods at the time) in the same year the fire happened, this book is largely composed of first-hand accounts of the conflagration by survivors. The book was translated into English in 1976.
          All of the horror of the terrible forest fire that destroyed the Minnesota towns of Hinckley, Mission Creek, Sandstone, Pokegama (now known as Brook Park), Partridge, and Miller on Sept 1, 1894, is presented in this small, quick-read book. The minimum estimate was 418 lives lost in the fire, but most historians believe fatalities numbered closer to 800. There is no way of knowing how many Native Americans and isolated settlers living back in the woods were also killed.
          The book is filled with horrendous descriptions of the suffering shared by so many. Whole families perished when they climbed down into their wells, thinking it a safe place to wait out the fire. They never realized that the firestorm would suck all the oxygen from the well and asphyxiate them. Some 300 people were saved by immersing themselves in the Grindstone River and in the shallow water and mud of a gravel pit. Two trains were instrumental in rescuing survivors.
          As an interesting side-note, Thomas P. “Boston” Corbett, the Union soldier who killed Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is believed to have died in this fire.
          It’s hard to say that one enjoys a book like this about a disaster that kills so many people, but it was fascinating in the many incidents of selfless heroics. As in the Johnstown Flood, the aftermath of the tragedy kept people busy for many months caring for the survivors, gathering and burying the charred bodies of those who died, and rebuilding the villages leveled by the firestorm.

GHOSTS OF THE FIREGROUND 
Peter M. Leschak
          ©2002 An interesting account of the lives of wildlands firefighters, this book is heavy on firefighting technology. Working primarily from a helicopter in the Northwoods of Minnesota, Leschak and his crews of firefighters also work in remote wilderness areas in the American and Canadian west.
The bulk of the book details the science of firefighting, with examples from many forest fires Leschak has fought over the years.
          There are also two other “side” stories interwoven into his narrative. One deals with Leschak’s personal spiritual journey, and the other tells the story of the little-known 1871 firestorm that destroyed the Wisconsin town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing at least 1200 of the town’s 2000 residents. The reason most people haven’t heard of the Peshtigo fire is because it happened on the same day as the famous Chicago fire (back when Chicago had a population of only 300,000).
          I didn’t think I’d ever get to the end of the book. The author was constantly jumping from one topic to another, back and forth from events of 1871 to the present. I was reading the book mainly to find out about the Peshtigo fire, but there wasn’t that much about it, compared to the endless details of what seemed like every fire the author had ever fought. The book will appeal to anyone interested in forestry, logging, and firefighting.

A Wrinkle in Time Trilogy

c. 2010 Godar Graphics

There are actually five books in this series, The Time Quintet.  I still have to read book 4 and book 5.
  
A WRINKLE IN TIME 
by Madeleine L’Engle
          © 1962 Now here’s a book that grabs you right in the first chapter. You have a missing father, a couple of out-of-the- ordinary children, and a mother who goes white when an unexpected visitor mentions a certain word.
          The story moves along swiftly as Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and her friend Calvin travel through time and space via a “wrinkle in time” to try to find her scientist father, who is lost in another dimension. The creatures they meet and the adventures they have are symbolic of the struggle of good versus evil. This is the first book of a series called The Time Quintet. I thought this was pretty good science fiction for kids, well-written, that should stand the test of time. (And adults like it too!)

A WIND IN THE DOOR 
by Madeleine L’Engle
          ©1973 The second book in the Time Quintet sci-fantasy series was every bit as good as the first (see review above). But instead of traveling through outer space to rescue her father, Meg Murry is drawn into the world of inner space to try to save Charles Wallace, her little brother who is gravely ill and failing fast.
          Meg is aided on her urgent mission by her friend Calvin, a much-despised school principal, a strange giant "teacher", and a fantastic cherubim. Together they fight the forces of evil inside the mitochondria of a cell inside of Charles Wallace’s sick body. It is a story of courage, unity, and sacrifice.
          I think all readers will appreciate that these books are short and to the point, thoughtful and imaginative, and move along quickly to exciting endings.

A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET 
by Madeleine L'Engle
          ©1978 Once again, L’Engle doesn’t disappoint. She jumps right into the story in the first pages and sweeps the reader along on another fast-paced, sci-fantastic journey. (See reviews #112 & #115 above.)
          Those who have read the first two books will be very familiar with tesseracts and kything, will understand Meg’s special bond with her younger brother, Charles Wallace, and will delight in the colorful new magical creatures that befriend and aid the Murry children in their battle against the Echthroi, the force of darkness and destruction.
          In this third book of the Time Quintet Meg is a young adult, married to her childhood best friend Calvin, and the couple are expecting their first baby. Charles Wallace is now fifteen, and for this adventure, he’s on his own with a unicorn as his guide. Meg must remain behind, but she supports him with her kything.
          The story begins with the world on the brink of nuclear war. Charles Wallace goes back in time to seek the Might-Have-Been and change the course of history.
          I’ve enjoyed these lively little tales, and I recommend them to young readers and readers that are young at heart.

Dictionary Day???

Somewhere I read that today, April 14th, is DICTIONARY DAY. However, 

I looked it up on the Internet, and consistently found that it's celebrated 

on Oct. 16, the birthday of "the Father of the American Dictionary," 

Noah Webster (1758). Webster began writing his dictionary, 

which included both traditional English vocabulary as well 

as newer American words, when he was 43 years old, 

and it took him 27 years to finish.

1962 edition of Webster's New School & Office Dictionary

Above is a picture of the dictionary my husband and his three sisters used in school, back in the 1960s & 1970s. Their names are in- scribed inside the front cover, its pages are held together by a brittle strip of duct tape, and by the delapidated look of the thing, they must have been either diligent scholars or kicked it around a lot!

I used to keep vocabulary notebooks when I was a kid in school. I've decided to add a vocabulary page to this book blog: a place where I can list the interesting words I come across in my reading.  Click on page button in the right sidebar.

A Tribute to Freedom

In honor of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson (1743), 

our 3rd President of the United States 

and the principal author the The Declaration of Independence:

  http://totallyfreeimages.com/109819/

I predict future happiness for Americans 

if they can prevent the government 

from wasting the labors of the people 

under the pretense of taking care of them.

~Thomas Jefferson~

I'm sure our Founding Fathers would endorse these modern-day books on freedom and wise governance:

FREEDOM UNDER SIEGE 

by Ron Paul
          I was disappointed that my library only had one book by Ron Paul, and it was published in 1987, just before his 1988 run for the Presidency as a third party candidate. I would have preferred a more up-to-date book. But Paul's message remains the same over the long-haul. 

           Long-time Representative Paul (R-Tex) is the leading advocate in Washington for individual rights over group rights, limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. He never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.          In this book, he takes a hard look at the way the Constitution has been ignored, tweeked, torn asunder, and nearly destroyed by the politicians of the 20th century. The chapter on Foreign Policy was an eye-opener, and he carefully explains why a noninterventionist foreign policy is NOT the same thing as isolationism. He strongly denounces the Federal Reserve and the military draft as unConstitutional.
          I kept having to remind myself that the book was written over 20 years ago, as it tackled issues that continue to erode our freedom and our greatness as a nation. This book was written before the Gulf War, 9/11, and the war in Iraq, but Ron Paul had a foreboding of what was to come when he wrote: "Economic conditions as they are and military preparations going on---in spite of the fact that we are not at this particular time [1987] in conflict---are indicative that there are strong forces determined to lead us unwisely into armed conflict. For the first time in our history, we significantly increased the military budget 70% to be used to defend nations other than America, even though we are not at war. This, along with the Supreme Court's sanctioning the drafting of men for the purpose of combat, is certainly a sign that we re closer to war than we have been in many years."
          In the chapter about our monetary policies, he is just as prophetic, seeing in the near future the devastating crisis in the banking industry and on Wall Street that we suffered in 2008 and are still reeling from.
          The man is intelligent, principled, and offers a sensible approach to smaller government and the preservation of the Constitution and our individual rights. I'm eager to read more from him.

[NOTE: This book review was from 2010. Since then, as everyone knows, Dr. Paul has gone on to run for the Rep. candidacy for President in this year's election. I don't understand why, since it was obvious in the early Rep. debates that the establishment/media was just going to ignore him and never let the American public hear much about this candidate and what he stands for. And it wasn't only Paul. They chose their favorite sons and "weeded out" the other earlier candidates with obvious, unfair bias. I'm sick! This is what our country has come down to, and sadly, most citizens don't even care. Why bother with elections any longer?]

GUNS, CRIME, AND FREEDOM 
by Wayne LaPierre 
          ©1994 Gun-control is a hot-button political topic. Although this book was written during the Clinton administration, and is therefore somewhat dated, it’s filled cover-to-cover with common sense reasoning for the preservation and protection of our United States Constitution and our 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Recommended reading for all Americans, pro or con, to better understand what’s really at stake here.


GLENN BECK'S COMMON SENSE 
by Glenn Beck 
          Whether you love him or hate him (or anything in between), #1 New York Times bestselling author Glenn Beck has given us food for thought in this short, easy-to-read book which lays out "the case against an out-of-control government." And, for me anyway, reading Glenn Beck is preferable to watching him on TV.
          The central issue here boils down to a two-party political system which is ruining America with its power-guzzling greed and corruption.
          I think of my personal right to vote as almost sacred. I've voted in every election since 1972 and I consider myself to be an Independent. The thing that troubles me is that in almost every election, I have voted for the lesser of two evils (Rep or Dem), because I've resigned myself to the lie that to vote for an independent 3rd party candidate would be like throwing my vote away. But why, I ask, should we have to vote for evil???
          Beck says that we never waste our vote if we vote our conscience. 25% of Americans claim to be independents. Add to those all the people who consider themselves Dems or Reps but are fed up with the mess the 2-party system has made of this country --- if all of these good people would band together and vote their conscience, I believe we could wrest the power from "the establishment" and really put our country on the road to serious, effective reform.
          This quote is not from Beck's book, but it's a favorite of mine and I think it pretty much sums up where we find ourselves as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. Way back in 1922, D.H. Lawrence said: "Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves." What an absolutely prophetic observation! We are selling our grandchildren into slavery as we continue to allow the American political machine (the parasite with two heads: Dem and Rep) to dominate and chip away at our Constitutional rights.
          Glenn Beck: "One day we will face our children and grandchildren as they ask us what we found more important and valuable than freedom. They will ask if our big, unaffordable homes, "free" universal health care, and "buy it now" lifestyle were worth enslaving them for."
I think this is a book all Americans should read.

International Guitar Month

 April is INTERNATIONAL GUITAR MONTH. In celebration I read a short book about how guitars are made.  I also expanded my musical horizons by listening to music CDs of classical guitar, from the public library --- something quite different from the “classic” rock I’m used to.  One CD selection was IN THE SPANISH STYLE by Christopher Parkening, a student of Segovia who has been proclaimed by music critics as “America’s greatest guitar virtuoso.”  The other CD was GUITAR FOR RELAXATION, a collection of soothing music from different periods played by Julian Bream. I enjoyed them both very much.

GUITARS: From Start to Finish

by Samuel G. Woods

            c.1999  I often wish I had some musical talent, but I don’t. I can play a few tunes on the harmonica or the mountain dulcimer, but I always wished I’d had piano or guitar lessons as a child.

            This book is an interesting look at how one famous brand, the Martin guitar, is made. A German immigrant, Christian Frederick Martin, Sr., set up a guitar-making shop on NYC’s Lower West Side in 1833. Five years later, he moved his family and his business to Nazareth, Pennsylvania where The Martin Company has been making guitars for over 175 years.

            In a series of photos, many of the more than 300 steps required to make a finished Martin guitar are illustrated and explained. The factory produces about 50,000 guitars a year, an average of 150-200 a day!

            There are also photos of some of the today’s great musical legends who own and play Martin “Signature Series” custom-made instruments, including Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Stephen Stills, and Willie Nelson. Country superstar Travis Tritt owns one that cost $36,000!

Books for National Pet Day

Feline sisters Katmandu & KittenYahoo were adopted in May, 2007.

Today is NATIONAL PET DAY!  ADOPT --- DON'T SHOP!  Below are some irresistible reads about some wonderful pets:

DEWEY: The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched the World 
Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
          This is a charming and heart-warming story of a kitten who is adopted by a small-town library in Iowa. It’s also the story of the librarian who loved him and the town of Spencer, who took him to their hearts. I thought the author’s explanation of the farm crisis of the 80s and the factors that have caused the decline of so many small towns across America was the best and easiest to understand that I’ve ever read. I loved how this “community” cat drew the people of Spencer together and, for the nineteen years of his tenure as their library cat, gave them something warm and loving to share during their hard times. 

WESLEY THE OWL 
by Stacey O'Brien
          ©2008 I've read a lot of books about pets, but this one is definitely one-of-a-kind! A research biologist at CalTech specializing in owl behavior adopts an injured baby barn owlet. Little Wesley becomes the center of her life for 19 years!
          I knew I was going to really like this book when, on page 32, the author tells of an experience she had with a barn owl flying at eye level outside the window of her car as she drove down a mountain road. Her experience was just like the one I had with a wild swan many years ago, and her joy at the event was identical to mine: an amazing close encounter with something rare and beautiful.
          I'm sorry, Wesley---but Stacey is the real star of the story! Her adventures living with an owl (heads up, Harry Potter fans) and her misadventures in the lab were hilarious and heart-warming. Her work at the research lab was fascinating and sometimes downright gross! We've all heard horror stories about lab animal mistreatment, but I was happy to find out that at the research lab where Stacey worked, the animals were treated with good care, respect, and love. Stacey went on to a career as a wildlife rescuer and rehabilitation expert.
          I learned a lot about owls reading this enjoyable book. I was amazed to find out that Stacey fed an estimated 29,000 mice to Wesley over his 19-year life, at more than a dollar a piece!
         This was a book I could enjoy slowly, one outrageous chapter at a time. Or it can be a quick read, with side-splitting action on nearly every page. I recommend it for everyone --- a real feel-good pet story, packed full of interesting animal facts.

JAMES HERRIOT’S FAVORITE DOG STORIES 
by James Herriot
          ©1995 This small volume of true dog stories by the late Yorkshire veterinarian is illustrated with gorgeous watercolors of some of Herriot’s favorite patients. The stories are sweet and simple and tell as much about the owners as it does about their dogs. This book would make a great gift for dog lovers and would make fine bedtime stories for children.

THE ALL-AMERICAN DOG: Man's Best Friend in Folk Art 
by Dr. Robert Bishop
          This delightful little picture book contains examples of early American paintings, portraits, carvings, needlework, weather vanes, pull-toys, carousels, andirons (fire dogs), cane handles, door stops --- all with dogs as the theme. Also included are amusing quotes about dogs, such as this one from Abraham Lincoln: "Killing the dog does not cure the bite."

Children's Librarians Are Awesome!

photo courtesy:  http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/

THE BOY WHO WAS RAISED BY LIBRARIANS

by Carla Morris

          c.2007  The author dedicated this great little children’s book “to children’s librarians everywhere --- may you be comforted by the knowledge that your daily small acts of kindness and service to children will result in adults who do the same!”

          Young Melvin spent so much time in the Livingston Public Library that it was almost as if he lived there. He went to the library every day after school because he was a very curious boy. He loved the librarians who helped him find books and info on the things that he was curious about.

          The book celebrates a little boy who grows up learning and achieving, and the librarians who were his mentors. This is a very sweet book about our friends, the librarians.

MISS BROOKS LOVES BOOKS (And I Don’t)

by Barbara Botner

          c.2010   Miss Brooks, the librarian, loves books a lot. She dresses up in character costumes to get the children excited about reading.

          In May, for Book Week, she plans a special activity. She asks each of the children in the reading group to pick a favorite story, wear a costume, and tell the group about the book. Missy isn’t happy.  She doesn’t like books, at all!

          “When I get home, I ask my mother if we can move to a new town. My mother says there’s a librarian in every town.”

          Missy takes home a book bag full of books, but she finds fault with every one. Then something her mother says in exasperation sparks an idea in Missy’s head, and she finds the perfect book to share with the group.  Do you want to know what book she chose? Sorry, I’m not telling.  You’ll have to read MISS BROOKS LOVES BOOKS!

SORRY, MISS FOLIO

by Jo Furtado

          c.1987  A little boy goes with his mother to the library to pick out a book on a snowy winter day. But he likes the book so much, he fails to return it. Each month he has a different, imaginative excuse why he still hasn’t returned it yet.  By spring, the librarian is getting concerned; by autumn, she’s downright angry and tearing out her hair! Will she EVER get the missing book back?

CARLO AND THE REALLY NICE LIBRARIAN

by Jessica Spanyol

          c.2004  For very young readers. Carlo is a giraffe and Crackers is his black cat. This is the story of their first visit to the library. Carlo is amazed by all the books he sees, the colorful posters, and the desk chairs on little wheels. But he and Crackers get a big scare when the librarian, a dragon, pops up from the circulation counter and asks “Can I help you?”

LIBRARY LIL

by Suzanne Williams

          c.1997  The story of Library Lil, from the time she was a baby who loved books; illustrated by the inimitable Steven Kellogg. By the time she was 8 years old, Lil had read all the books in the children’s library. She developed very strong arms from carrying so many books. When she grew up, naturally, she became a librarian, but she was sad because children weren’t using the library. This is the story of how Lil turns the whole town into readers.

 

For the Love of Librarians

This is NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK. In celebration of those unsung public servants, our beloved librarians, I offer  two books of nonfiction and two novels for your enjoyment.

PATRONIZE YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OFTEN!

http://imagespublicdomain.wordpress.com/category/wpa/

DOWN CUT SHIN CREEK

by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer
          ©2001  During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal initiative and the Works Progress Administration to put citizens who’d lost their jobs back to work. One of the most unique and successful of these projects was the Pack Horse Library Project of Eastern Kentucky. 

          Life in the Cumberland Mountains of that period was one of poverty and privation. Thousands of people lived up in the hollows, inaccessible by roads and completely cut off from the rest of the world. The Pack Horse Librarians (almost all local women who would be trusted as no outsiders would) brought bags full of books to isolated rural homes and one-room schoolhouses accessible only by horseback. They delivered books in the stifling heat and humidity of summer, as well as in frigid winter. The books and magazines were mostly worn-out discards from libraries, schools, universities, and private donations, as the WPA could only afford to pay the librarians $28 a month, with no money available for the purchase of books. 

          Illustrated with period photographs of the actual women who rode the library circuits, this book describes a typical day in the life of a packhorse librarian, the initial resistance and hostility they met from suspicious hill-folk, and the wonders of reading they brought to children, their parents, and solitary individuals living far from the beaten path.

THE DISMISSAL OF MISS RUTH BROWN 

by Louise S. Robbins 

          This is the true story of one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement, a courageous white woman clearly ahead of the times.

          Ruth Brown had been the librarian of the Bartlesville Public Library (Oklahoma) for 30 years when she was fired from her job in 1950. Her firing was supposedly on the grounds of providing “subversive” (Communist) materials to the public via the library collection.

          After reading this well-documented book, it’s clear that she was fired because she had been promoting racial equality by allowing African Americans access to the library as early as the 1920s. She also wanted to have an integrated story time for children. At the time of her dismissal, the library was subscribing to two African-American publications, Ebony and Negro Digest. She really stirred the kettle when she took black friends with her to her church and when she invited two female African-American teachers to lunch with her at a local diner.

           Her opponents used McCarthy era scare tactics to undermine Miss Brown’s support in the community. It was generally assumed that anyone who worked for civil rights at that time must be a communist. And anyone who supported her was guilty by association.

          This was just one small skirmish in the struggle for civil rights. But it was indicative of the many small skirmishes that took place in this country during the turbulent 50s, in which white people stood up for racial equality against the powerful white politicians, business leaders, and power brokers who pugnaciously desired to keep the status quo.

          This is not light reading. Some would find it dry, possibly boring. But the book is well worth reading, because it gives a much clearer understanding of the censorship issue and the obstacles African Americans faced in securing equal rights under the law.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS 
by Ian Sansom
          Israel Armstrong, a proud, north London bookstore clerk of Irish-Jewish descent, embarks on the dream of his young lifetime: to be a real librarian, with his own library, in a small village in northern Ireland. The only Trouble is: when he gets there, he finds the library closed and all the books missing. That’s trouble with a capital T.
          The young librarian encounters quirky villagers and endless problems as he sets out to find the lost books. He must also refurbish an old van to use as a book mobile, assuming he finds the books, because his library has fallen on hard times and is permanently closed. I found myself feeling sorry for Israel. He couldn’t win for losing!
          This is a quick read because most of it is in short, snappy dialog. If you can read this book with an Irish accent, all the better! This story reminds me of slapstick --- a kind of “Who’s on First?” book. It just cracked me up, page after page! I really felt like I was right there in “the north of the north of Ireland” as I read about Israel’s dream-turned-nightmare. If you’re looking for a fast and funny mystery-comedy, you can’t go wrong here.
          AND for the fans of series: this is only the first of four Israel Armstrong/The Mobile Library Mysteries.

THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE 
by Masha Hamilton
          An idealistic young American woman named Fiona goes to Kenya to run a very special bookmobile. She travels from one remote village to the next, carrying books (and knowledge of the outside world) on the backs of camels.
          Just like in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, this is another story of two worlds colliding: the modern Western world and the primitive culture of indigenous tribal life. Some of the natives are eager to embrace Western ways and experience life in the outside world, while others fight the idea, preferring to cling to centuries old traditions and superstitiously fearing the traveling library will bring bad luck and disaster to the village.
          The story is told from the point of view of several characters: the librarian Fi, her African counterpart who accompanies her, a teacher who went to Nairobi to study and returned to teach in his home village, the teacher’s wife (who is dead-set against the bookmobile), a young Kenyan woman and her grandmother (both supportive of learning new ways), and a young man who was horribly disfigured in a hyena attack as a child.
          I was surprised by the similarities with The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom. In both stories, young librarians go to a foreign land to bring books and learning to simple villagers in out-of-the-way locations. Their libraries are bookmobiles. And in both, missing books are the focus of the story. But while The Case of the Missing Books is a zany comedy, this novel is serious in its tone. I am interested in reading about African tribal life and the impact, both beneficial and detrimental, that foreigners have on indigenous peoples.