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by Sarah White

In the past, most people learned crafts from a friend or family member. They taught the new crafter basic stitches and were nearby to help when he or she got stuck working on a new project. These days, people teach themselves crafts a lot more often, which means there is no wise expert on call to solve problems that can stymie a project and crush a new crafter’s confidence. Edie Eckman’s The Crochet Answer Book seeks to take the place of that helpful friend by anticipating and answering some of the most common questions crafters have. This book covers the basics of forming stitches, shaping and blocking, as well as more advanced techniques. It should be on every fiber lover’s bookshelf. Sarah E. White is the senior editor of the crafting website LovetoKnow Crafts.

Legendary Chicago bluesmen

Review by bookpagedev

by Ron Wynn

W.W. Norton’s new Enterprise imprint gets off to a great start with Rich Cohen’s incisive, spicy and frequently hilarious Machers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll. Cohen, a Rolling Stone contributing editor deftly achieves the imprint’s goal of illuminating the business experience in a literary manner by spotlighting (and occasionally exaggerating) the quirky personalities and lifestyles of two Chicago music icons: producer and Chess Records founder Leonard Chess and transplanted Mississippi native McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield.

Chess’ greatness came in his identification of one underserved market (African-American consumers) and the development of another (white teens who also loved black music). Cohen argues that in the process Chess also helped invent rock ‘n’ roll by aiding Waters’ decision to electrify the blues, and later doing the same thing for Chuck Berry’s merger of teen angst lyrics and black rhythmic backbeat.

Cohen depicts Leonard Chess as the prototypical independent record label owner: a slick operator who both greatly admired and frequently hoodwinked the performers who made him a multimillionaire. From deducting the costs of lavish parties from their royalties to playing fast and loose with songwriting credits, Chess kept label profits high and artists earnings low. Still, Chess truly did care about the fortunes of his acts, often bailing them out of tough personal situations. Chess Records unraveled when the tricky coalition between white immigrant owners and black performers was shattered by Dr. King’s assassination and the emergence of a militancy that insisted African-American artists dissolve business alliances deemed paternalistic and exploitative. The reality of Chess was far more complex than that, but it didn’t matter. Leonard Chess sold his company for a fraction of its true worth in 1968 as the corporate takeover of rock gained steam. Today’s big four-dominated, sterile universe pales (in more ways than one) by comparison. Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and several other publications.

W.W. Norton's new Enterprise imprint gets off to a great start with Rich Cohen's incisive, spicy and frequently hilarious Machers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll. Cohen, a Rolling Stone contributing editor deftly achieves the imprint's goal of illuminating…

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

Getting all the answers

Review by bookpagedev

by Sarah White

In the past, most people learned crafts from a friend or family member. They taught the new crafter basic stitches and were nearby to help when he or she got stuck working on a new project. These days, people teach themselves crafts a lot more often, which means there is no wise expert on call to solve problems that can stymie a project and crush a new crafter’s confidence. Margaret Radcliffe’s The Knitting Answer Book seeks to take the place of that helpful friend by anticipating and answering some of the most common questions crafters have. This book covers the basics of forming stitches, shaping and blocking, as well as more advanced techniques. It should be on every fiber lover’s bookshelf. Sarah E. White is the senior editor of the crafting website LovetoKnow Crafts.

History

History

Christian soldiers

Review by bookpagedev

by Roger Bishop

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for Western European Christians to wage a holy war to reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims. Those who served as “soldiers of Christ,” the pope said, would be cleansed of sin. Within several months, 100,000 men and women, from virtually all stations of life (no kings volunteered), answered the call. Their religiously motivated and violent actions set in motion events that radically transformed the relationship between Christians and Muslims; the reverberations are still with us. Thomas Asbridge, a British scholar and Crusade historian, tells the story of the three-year, 3,000-mile journey in his magnificent The First Crusade: A New History. Working from firsthand accounts and the latest Crusade scholarship, Asbridge skillfully combines religious and military history, challenging long-held views in the process. “The crusade was designed, first and foremost, to meet the needs of the papacy,” he writes, “the campaign must be seen as an attempt to consolidate papal empowerment and expand Rome’s sphere of influence.” The crusaders themselves had many motives for undertaking the journey; Asbridge is convinced that greed was not a primary one. Recent research shows how incredibly expensive and extremely frightening the journey was. He does note, however, that “perhaps the most significant insight into the medieval mentality offered by the First Crusade is the unequivocal demonstration that authentic Christian devotion and a heartfelt desire for material wealth were not mutually exclusive impulses in the eleventh century.” The First Crusade reached its nadir in June 1098 at the Great Battle of Antioch. Death, hunger, threat of a Muslim attack and a morale crisis appeared to signal defeat. It was only the discovery of a small shard of metal thought to be part of a Holy Lance an event interpreted as a “miracle” that, along with gifted leadership and a lot of luck, inspired the crusaders to achieve a stunning victory against all odds. Asbridge’s excellent account of the first Crusade is consistently enlightening. Roger Bishop is a Nashville bookseller and a regular contributor to BookPage.

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for Western European Christians to wage a holy war to reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims. Those who served as "soldiers of Christ," the pope said, would be cleansed of sin. Within several months, 100,000 men and women, from virtually…

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

Hot summer knits

Review by bookpagedev

by Sarah White

Swimwear designer Ashley Paige knows more than most about the interplay between crafts and fashion. Her knits have graced the bodies of such stars as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Gwen Stefani, and her book Sexy Little Knits: Chic Designs to Knit and Crochet brings her sultry sensibility to the home crafter. The book offers 25 designs including beach wear, fun summer clothes and pieces to wear at home. The projects show incredible range, from a nylon robe to a halter dress with peek-a-boo hearts to barely-there bikinis and an long mesh nightgown. This book is not for beginners, as it doesn’t given any basic knitting or crocheting instructions. It’s also not for the timid (and not just because there’s a derriere on the cover). Those who have been looking for something daringly different to knit or crochet will find that this book fills the niche perfectly. Sarah E. White is the senior editor of the crafting website LovetoKnow Crafts.

Memoir

Memoir

Saving a culture through books

Review by bookpagedev

by Robert Weibezahl

When Aaron Lansky began studying Yiddish as a college freshman in the early ’70s, it was hard to find books. Though once spoken by three-quarters of the world’s Jewish population, few Jews of his generation, or even of his parents’, knew how to speak, much less read, the language. When a professor sent him to scour New York’s Lower East Side for Yiddish texts, Lansky’s fate was sealed. At age 23 he set to the task of rescuing Yiddish books from oblivion.

At the time, scholars estimated there were some 70,000 Yiddish volumes gathering dust in private libraries and moldering in people’s attics and basements. Tracking them down would be quite an undertaking, Lansky imagined. He had no idea. A quarter of a century later Lansky and his National Yiddish Book Center have saved 1.5 million Yiddish books, books that have been put back into the hands of readers and preserved in some of the major libraries of the world. Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books is his infectious account of this Sisyphean undertaking.

Armed with dilapidated rental trucks and a few obliging cohorts, Lansky started collecting books from elderly Yiddish-speakers who were moving from their homes or from heirs who had inherited whole libraries they could not read. The old Jews he meets in his travels are from a forgotten time, and they regale him with stories of labor unions, leftist politics and the once-vibrant Yiddish culture. Every book pick-up becomes a lesson in personal history, usually accompanied by an artery-clogging meal. Many of Lansky’s adventures among the aging Jewish immigrants are hilarious; a few bring a tear to the eye. All underscore the rich legacy of Yiddish, a legacy that has been preserved and is growing in popularity among a new generation of Jews in no small part thanks to the indefatigable Lansky. More than once in this inspiring chronicle, someone often an assimilated Jew asks Lansky what point he sees in saving books that so few can read. After reading Outwitting History there can be little doubt that this is more than just a mitzvah or good deed. Lansky and the National Yiddish Book Center have done more than outwitted history, they have reversed it.

When Aaron Lansky began studying Yiddish as a college freshman in the early '70s, it was hard to find books. Though once spoken by three-quarters of the world's Jewish population, few Jews of his generation, or even of his parents', knew how to speak, much…

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

Beautiful beads

Review by bookpagedev

by Sarah White

The perfect way to jazz up an outfit is with a great beaded necklace, earrings or bracelet. Beaded jewelry looks difficult to make, and it can be, but there are many simple designs that are quite beautiful and satisfying for beginners and more experienced crafters alike. Simply Beautiful Beaded Jewelry by Heidi Boyd offers 50 delightful projects for beaded accessories made with supplies easily found at national craft store chains. These designs look anything but run-of-the-mill, often incorporating fancy looking design techniques such as multiple strands, wire wrapping and using head pins to make beads dangle. Each project is photographed in great detail as Boyd walks readers through every step. Variations are provided so that even beginning crafters will feel free to make these designs their own. Sarah E. White is the senior editor of the crafting website LovetoKnow Crafts.

Biography

Biography

Portrait of the artist

Review by bookpagedev

by Michael Sims

Surely everyone knows who John James Audubon is innovative painter, Frenchman turned American, pioneer explorer, doting but often absent husband. And surely Richard Rhodes is one of those authors who needs no introduction. Even if you have never read his work, you’ve encountered his name and his many prize-winning books The Making of the Atomic Bomb, The Inland Ground and A Hole in the World.

So the two names on the cover of John James Audubon: The Making of an American, are something of a narrative dream team: magnificent historical adventurer meets seasoned and polished biographer. This book lives up to its promise: Rhodes has written what reads like an irresistible historical novel that happens to be true.

Audubon immigrated to the New World in 1803, at the age of 18. He faced all the terrors of the age: rampant diseases with no cures, unmapped and dangerous wilderness, a shaky economy in which banks could call in loans destroying their customers. With talent, chutzpah and passion, he triumphed over everything and became the single most famous name in ornithology not to mention art. Even with cameras and binoculars to back them up, contemporary painters can’t surpass Audubon’s sheer talent for drawing and painting.

The advance promotion for Rhodes’s book claims that it is the first major biography of Audubon in 40 years. This needlessly dismisses Shirley Streshinsky’s strong (if admittedly lesser) biography of a decade or so ago, and Alice Ford’s of the late 1980s. But this new book is unquestionably the best written and the most vivid and compelling to take up the story of this talented and original man.

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

Transformed tees

Review by bookpagedev

by Sarah White

T-shirts have long been a fashion staple because they are so easy to dress up or down. But in the end, a T-shirt is just a T-shirt, right? It is unless it’s an altered T, made with the guidance of Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt by Megan Nicolay. This fun and creative book shows crafty women (and men) how to turn basic new or vintage tees into halter-tops, tanks with braided straps, peasant shirts, miniskirts, teeny bikinis, bags and much more. Using holes, ties, strings and scallops as embellishment, this book takes T-shirts to a whole new level. The designs are easy to follow and many of them can be made without sewing. Those that do require sewing could easily be stitched up with a needle and thread instead of a sewing machine, making this a very approachable DIY book even for those who don’t see themselves as crafty. Sarah E. White is the senior editor of the crafting website LovetoKnow Crafts.

T-shirts have long been a fashion staple because they are so easy to dress up or down. But in the end, a T-shirt is just a T-shirt, right? It is unless it's an altered T, made with the guidance of Generation T: 108 Ways to…

History

History

Words that inspired a generation

Review by bookpagedev

by Anne Bartlett

There was one brief shining moment some 40 years ago when the word and the image were in fine balance in the world of politics. Into that time came John F. Kennedy. A handsome man, Kennedy cared very much how he looked, almost to the point of excessive vanity. But he also cared deeply about what he said and how he said it. His rhetorical hero was Winston Churchill, whose bold speeches had fortified a nation fighting for its life. Kennedy was no Churchill, yet whatever else American historians ultimately conclude about him, they will remember his 1961 inaugural address, which contained the memorable line, “Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country.” In Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America, Thurston Clarke devotes the kind of attention to Kennedy’s speech that Garry Wills and other writers have recently given to Lincoln’s speeches. His book unintentionally serves as a coda to those analyses; as he notes, the Kennedy administration was the last period in U.S. politics when speeches mattered as much as pictures. And beyond his explication of the words, Clarke shows that it was the perfect speech for that particular point in time. Many who remember those elegant, but powerful phrases assume they were written by Kennedy’s brilliant speechwriter Ted Sorensen an assumption that would have enraged Kennedy. Clarke examines the speech drafts and other evidence to argue that it was a true collaboration between the two men, with the most memorable lines written by Kennedy himself. Certainly the speech was imbued with the president’s philosophy and life experience. As he closely examines the 10 days leading up to the inauguration, Clarke also provides a vivid portrait of the time, the place and the man. Clarke is no unthinking Kennedy acolyte. The president is described in all his complexity, at once brilliant, arrogant, brave, reckless and deadly earnest about making the United States a beacon of freedom in a new era. We seem finally to be far enough away from the trauma of Kennedy’s assassination to see his administration with some objectivity. But as Clarke demonstrates, Kennedy’s presidency started with what deserves to be counted among the great speeches of this country’s history. Anne Bartlett is a journalist who lives in South Florida.

Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery

Searching for Mary Magdalene

Review by bookpagedev

Part thriller, part visionary quest, Kathleen McGowan’s The Expected One plunges the reader into yet another search for the real Mary Magdalene. In the novel, American author Maureen Paschal seeks verifiable facts when researching her book about women maligned by traditional historians. But following the trail of Mary Magdalene soon takes her on a personal journey as well. In Jerusalem, Maureen slips into a compelling vision of a woman who must be Mary. Haunting dreams follow, pointing to clues about Mary and Maureen’s relationship to her. Then, a stranger, the eccentric Berenger Sinclair, invites Maureen to a party at his estate in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, enticing her with a promise of information about her father, who died under mysterious circumstances when Maureen was a child. But she meets resistance from her cousin, Jesuit priest Peter Healy. While Maureen doesn’t share Peter’s love of the Church, he’s her only living relative and protector. Sinclair makes the outrageous claim that Maureen is the prophesied Expected One, a woman of the lineage of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, the only one who can find the missing gospels that Mary wrote. Sinclair belongs to a secret society that has traced Mary’s lineage through many famous descendants. But other societies exist in the area, with ruthless members ready to kill to stop Sinclair’s group and destroy the elusive treasure that could redefine Christianity. Interwoven with Maureen’s adventures are glimpses of Mary and snippets of her hidden gospels. As the truth emerges, the narrative moves to Mary herself and offers one more perspective on this enigmatic figure. In an afterword, McGowan thanks Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, whose 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail popularized the idea that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and that the couple’s descendants are alive today and who attempted to sue Dan Brown for using their claims in The Da Vinci Code. The Expected One is an intriguing take on Mary’s story. Janet Fisher writes from Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Part thriller, part visionary quest, Kathleen McGowan's The Expected One plunges the reader into yet another search for the real Mary Magdalene. In the novel, American author Maureen Paschal seeks verifiable facts when researching her book about women maligned by traditional historians. But following the…

Fiction

Fiction

In the company of a courtesan

Review by bookpagedev

Yale-educated Judith Lee has a disastrous work history, she is months behind on the rent for her New York City apartment and her parents have stopped supporting her. So what is an attractive young woman, descended from Korean royalty, to do? Become a courtesan, of course! When Jude’s young aunt introduces her to the mysterious Madame Tartakoff, she is drawn into the pampered life of a kept woman. Her 11 young co-workers are not actually beautiful, but all have privileged, aristocratic backgrounds similar to Jude’s. And when Madame Tartakoff sets Jude up with an irresistible classical violinist named Yvgeny who gives Jude a handful of credit cards from famous department stores, Jude thinks she has finally found a job that is perfect for someone of her superior lineage. Until, that is, she meets the even more irresistible Joshua Spinoza, a broke Irish/Jewish Ph.

D. candidate in philosophy at Columbia. Joshua argues with her, insults her, eats pickles from street vendors and (gasp) makes her sit in the dizzying top row of the Met, where people actually wear sweaters instead of designer evening clothes, during a performance of La BohÂme. Y. Euny Hong’s background as a journalist for such publications as The New York Times, Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal seems an odd preparation for this wry, clever debut novel, but perhaps it’s her experience as one of the founders of Rumpus Magazine, the humorous, controversial Yale University tabloid, that gives real insight into her writing style. Arrogant, narcissistic Jude might normally be a difficult heroine to root for, though some family secrets and unfortunate events finally humanize her but only slightly; luckily for readers she never loses her hilarious edge in this captivating, sophisticated high-society comedy. Dedra Anderson writes from Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

Memoir

Memoir

Trains in his veins

Review by bookpagedev

by Howard Shirley

For a six-year-old boy in 1950, says Sam Posey, the world was divided into two main categories: fort guys and train guys. Posey grew up as a train guy, a disciple of Lionel. And though he soon grew beyond boyhood, he found that being a train guy never left him.

Playing with Trains: A Passion Beyond Scale is part biography, part historical exploration and part homage to train guys. Written by Grand Prix driver and sports journalist Posey, the book is a ride through the life of a man, a trip taken by miniature train. Posey begins with memories of childhood hours idled away with his Lionel electric train set. Forgotten during adolescence as such things often are the memories return when Posey gives a train to his own son. Like a locomotive gathering speed, the gift grows from a simple layout to a 16-year juggernaut of modeling, building, painting and purchasing. By the end, Posey has created a 12- by 60-foot layout in his basement, with mountains soaring to the ceiling and trains disappearing around twists and curves of miniature track. The train guy in his past is alive and well.

What fueled this passionate journey? And what fuels the journey of thousands of others drawn to the magic of miniature locomotives? Posey himself is curious to know, so he takes fascinating excursions throughout the book, exploring the history of railroads, big and little, and meeting a cast of characters that only real life can produce. As the book chronicles this shared obsession, it becomes more than a profile of a hobby; it becomes an examination of a changing America and the loss of part of its past.

Posey has a knack for allowing the human side of his story to shine through. His writing contains poignancy and beauty that raises a simple pastime to an evocative expression of the human spirit. Whether you’ve ever found fascination in trains, or the inner sparks that make us human, Playing with Trains is a journey worth taking. Howard Shirley admits to being a fort guy though he also likes trains.

bookpagedev

Getting all the answers

Legendary Chicago bluesmen

Getting all the answers

Christian soldiers

Hot summer knits

Saving a culture through books

Beautiful beads

Portrait of the artist

Transformed tees

Words that inspired a generation

Searching for Mary Magdalene

In the company of a courtesan

Trains in his veins

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