bookpagedev

by Sarah Goodrum

One of the beauties of fiction is its ability to invite us into moments we could never witness in reality, into circumstances far beyond our experience. How clearly this beauty is illustrated and exploited by Lydia Millet in her new novel, My Happy Life. It’s the story of one woman’s life, as spoken or written from her locked room in an abandoned mental hospital. The staff and patients are gone, but no one has thought to come for our narrator. She is left with nothing but the water in the bathroom to keep her alive, her few possessions and the last light from two flickering light bulbs to fend off windowless darkness.

We come to know that the dreary room is not unlike her life. She began as a foundling in a shoebox, shuttled from one foster family to the next. "You are extra," the women in the state home told her, "Nobody needs you." No stranger to abuse from an early age, she is subjected to rape, kidnapping, abandonment and staggering neglect. Everything that she manages to love is either taken from her or is, itself, the source of more pain.

Despite the real beauty of the writing, there are points where the narrator’s voice stretches too thin over the circumstances, becoming unrealistically erudite for an uneducated woman. Yet there could hardly be a more difficult character to create, one of the throng of homeless in our cities, shuffled in and out of our mental health system, marginalized and forgotten. Within these pages, Millet enters a world where the "invisible" of society exist, punished when they attempt to become part of the foreground.

Although she focuses on the horror of this woman’s life, Millet also conveys the woman’s capacity for love for her attackers, who at least want to be close to her, for those who would use her and ignore her, no matter how loathsome they might be.

Never shrinking from the bald sadness of this woman’s life, Millet stays true to the character’s unending supply of hope, both wise and childlike. In doing so, she proves herself a delicate and fearless writer with an uncommon voice.

Memoir

Memoir

Black and white: opposing views on racial identity

Review by bookpagedev

Two intriguing new books one by an outspoken African-American journalist and another by an equally candid civil rights activist offer starkly different views on race relations in America. The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson and Quitting America by Randall Robinson explore the many ways in which African-Americans have been maligned, discriminated against and mistreated. However, Dickerson and Robinson disagree strongly on who or what is responsible for the plight of African Americans and what should be done to change it.

Dickerson, a former Air Force intelligence officer and a Harvard Law grad, is a journalist known for her bluntness, particularly on issues of race and gender. In a critically acclaimed memoir, An American Story (2000), she revealed her own circuitous route to success as a black woman and accepted responsibility for most of her personal and professional failings. In The End of Blackness: Returning the Souls of Black Folk to Their Rightful Owners, Dickerson argues that some African Americans are so mired in past wrongs done to them that they are unwilling and/or unable to move forward and work to improve their status. “Blacks simply do not know who and how to be absent oppression,” Dickerson writes in characteristically straightforward fashion. “To cease invoking racism and reveling in its continuance is to lose the power to haunt whites, the one tattered possession they’ll fight for while their true freedom molders unclaimed. It is to lose the power to define themselves as the opposite of something evil, rather than on their own terms.” For Dickerson, the solution is in self-reliance, with African Americans working to free themselves from what constrains and limits them, focusing on the future rather than the past. She urges African Americans to look inside in order to find the answers to problems on the outside, never defining themselves solely on the basis of race. As for the expected backlash her ideas will bring from fellow African Americans, Dickerson says she would welcome the opportunity to debate her critics.

Randall Robinson takes an equally caustic approach to espousing his views about race, but reaches a dramatically different conclusion. In Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land, Robinson explains why he lost hope and literally “quit” the U.S. Disgusted, aggravated and burnt out, Robinson left the country and relocated to the Caribbean island of St. Kitts where his wife was born.

For Robinson, the decision to leave was the culmination of years of resentment toward his treatment as a black man and civil rights advocate in America. Experiences such as being forced to sit at the back of the bus and being denied courteous service at a restaurant or department store contributed to his rage. He angrily tells stories about his protest marches, hunger strikes and political rallies through the years most of which were fruitless, his cries for change falling on deaf ears.

Robinson provides many sobering and grim statistics about injustice and inequality in America. “In a country that just squandered more than two hundred billion dollars on a war of dubious legality, forty-three million Americans sixteen percent of the population are without health care insurance,” he writes. “One in four blacks, including those who need health care insurance most, the poorest, are wholly unprotected.” Quitting America is a sharp contrast to Robinson’s 2002 book, The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other, in which he encourages African-Americans to speak out and support each other in eradicating crime and poverty from urban America. At this point, Robinson has simply given up on America and believes that the only way for people of color to thrive and succeed is to vacate this country for greener, or perhaps, blacker, and friendlier pastures elsewhere.

Glenn Townes is a journalist based in New Jersey.

Fiction, Historical Fiction

Fiction Historical Fiction

Rising from the ashes of the Hindenberg

Review by bookpagedev

by James Webb

These times of uncertainty make the story of a legendary disaster simultaneously important and irrelevant. Irrelevant because the immediacy and pain of the current situation render any comparison to previous tragedies superfluous; important because the impact such events have on individual lives can touch us today. The Phoenix, a novel about the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg, is such a story.

German writer Henning Boetius actually tells two stories in The Phoenix. The first is that of Edmund Boysen, a sailor turned dirigible pilot, a man whose quest for the clouds mirrors his quest to better himself in society. He is a golden boy, and his golden life is shattered one fateful evening in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The second story, wrapped around the first, is that of Birger Lund, a reporter and passenger on the ill-fated flight. Horribly disfigured and presumed dead, Lund gets a new face and a new identity, and he is determined to discover what actually happened on the Hindenburg. Boetius has impeccable credentials when it comes to this subject. His father was the last surviving member of the crew and was at the controls the night of the crash. Boetius grew up hearing the stories and theories of those events.

It’s been widely said that the Titanic’s demise marked the beginning of the modern age, but in portraying the Hindenburg tragedy, Boetius has captured another important turning point. Boysen is a man who wears his past like a scar, while Lund, who is scarred, sheds his skin both physically and metaphorically to face the new age. The Phoenix is a moody, enthralling voyage into a past that isn’t so far away and a future that is continually being remade.

Humor, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Humor

Man against the machine

Review by bookpagedev

by Martin Brady

Daniel H. Wilson, a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, has a serious background in robotics research. Hence, he’s eminently qualified to offer advice on How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion. This modest-sized paperback nicely splits the difference between reality and farce, with Wilson cuing in his readers to the far-flung advancements that have already been achieved with robotics, then juxtaposing those ideas with droll (if possibly effective) lifesaving remedies for the average human should the ‘bots rise up against us. Wilson cites well-known sci-fi flicks along the way, and he seems to have a healthy respect for Hollywood’s technical vision, even in light of his own insider knowledge. The tips for avoiding oblivion “Escape at right angles,” “Lose the human heat signature” all play out logically in Wilson’s way-out scenarios, but the author also elicits subtle, well-intended chuckles at the same time. (We might laugh even harder if we didn’t pause to think it could actually happen.)

Martin Brady is a writer in Nashville.

Daniel H. Wilson, a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, has a serious background in robotics research. Hence, he's eminently qualified to offer advice on How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion. This modest-sized paperback nicely splits the…

Biography

Biography

Jefferson’s link to the slave states

Review by bookpagedev

Jefferson’s link to the slave states Like many prospective readers, I fear, my first thought when I spotted the words "Negro President" emblazoned across a portrait of Thomas Jefferson was, "Do we really need another book about Sally Hemings?" To my delight I discovered inside not the familiar story of Jefferson and his slave mistress but a fresh and provocative interpretation of the influence of the slave states on the third president.

Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg, has published two previous books looking at Jefferson as author of the Declaration of Independence and as founder of the University of Virginia. In his new book, Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power, Wills examines how the power of the Southern slave states defined and shaped Jefferson’s presidency from its inception.

Jefferson was dubbed the "Negro President" in the wake of the election of 1800, when the Electoral College deadlocked, forcing the election into the House of Representatives. There, by a mere eight votes, the Virginian wrested the presidency from incumbent president John Adams, thanks to the provision in the Constitution that allowed Southern states to count their slaves as three-fifths of a person when determining a state’s representation in Congress and the Electoral College. As Wills makes clear, the curious three-fifths ratio gave the South disproportionate control of the government up to the Civil War.

Although Jefferson recognized the evils of slavery, he felt powerless to challenge it. "Though everyone recognizes that Jefferson depended on slaves for his economic existence," Wills insists, "fewer reflect that he depended on them for his political existence." Brimming with cogent arguments gracefully expressed, this volume will become a standard source on the Sage of Monticello and his time. Dr. Thomas Appleton is professor of history at Eastern Kentucky University.

Jefferson's link to the slave states Like many prospective readers, I fear, my first thought when I spotted the words "Negro President" emblazoned across a portrait of Thomas Jefferson was, "Do we really need another book about Sally Hemings?" To my delight I discovered inside…

Humor, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Humor

Living a dog’s life

Review by bookpagedev

by Martin Brady

Bad Dog, by R.D. Rosen, Harry Prichett and Rob Battles, follows the format of last year’s bestseller, Bad Cat in depicting the very strange behavior of household pets. Or should we say the strange (and sometimes unforgivable) behavior of their owners? Each page features a color photo of a pooch dressed in an outlandish get-up (a bright pink wig, a witch’s hat, a tiara, a football helmet and a striped prison uniform are among the accessories). The photos have captions that try to define the pups’ attitudes, revealing them to be, by turns, a bemused, hostile, embarrassed, feisty, resigned and sometimes very put-upon bunch. “I may be rich, but I still like to sniff a fire hydrant now and then,” sniffs a Bijon wearing multiple strands of jewelry. The photos include submissions by pet owners, which makes us wonder just who really needs obedience training.

Martin Brady is a writer in Nashville.

Bad Dog, by R.D. Rosen, Harry Prichett and Rob Battles, follows the format of last year's bestseller, Bad Cat in depicting the very strange behavior of household pets. Or should we say the strange (and sometimes unforgivable) behavior of their owners? Each page features a…

History

History

Ties between a poet and a president

Review by bookpagedev

Here’s an interesting fact about the two of the most influential Americans of the 19th century Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman, though linked in many ways, never actually met. Does that matter? From the standpoint of history, not really. In a fascinating new book, writer Daniel Mark Epstein argues that, although they were not personally acquainted, the two men had a profound effect on one another and on their nation.

Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington offers an analysis of their historic contributions to society and a discussion of their literary connections. The book opens before the Civil War, when Lincoln first read Whitman’s radical book of poems, Leaves of Grass, which his law partner brought into their office in 1857. Lincoln privately complimented the poet’s freshness and vivacity of language and sentiment. Although he never publicly expressed his admiration for Whitman’s poems, their influence imbues his own speeches and other writing, Epstein argues. Of course, Lincoln’s influence on Whitman was massive. The president’s brooding, care-worn face and his great burden inspired the poet, who served as a nurse in Washington’s military hospitals. The two men passed so frequently in the streets that they began to exchange friendly nods, a ritual that led to the poet professing “love” for Lincoln.

Epstein poignantly recalls Whitman’s experience near the end of the war, when the relevance of his collection, Drum Taps, was displaced by the South’s surrender and by Lincoln’s assassination. He examines the creation of Whitman’s great eulogy to his fallen hero, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” and follows Whitman into the 1880s, when he began lecturing about Lincoln to enthusiastic audiences.

Epstein’s book serves double duty as an engaging wartime history and an insightful work of literary analysis, capturing an era and two great men who helped to shape it. Jason Emerson is a former National Park Service park ranger at the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois, and a published poet.

Here's an interesting fact about the two of the most influential Americans of the 19th century Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman, though linked in many ways, never actually met. Does that matter? From the standpoint of history, not really. In a fascinating new book, writer…

Humor, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Humor

Southern speak

Review by bookpagedev

by Martin Brady

As a stand-up comedian and, more recently, in his WB television program “Blue Collar TV,” Jeff Foxworthy has gained a reputation for having a little more savoir faire than his redneck peers. That doesn’t by any means put Jeff Foxworthy’s Redneck Dictionary on the highbrow end of comic material. This compendium, compiled by Foxworthy and four other comedy writers, looks for the “punning” nature to be found in “cornpone-speak,” as old words emerge with new meanings. The text is arranged like a conventional dictionary, including pronunciation and usage tips, with each word used “appropriately” in a sentence. Take, for example, intense: “Next time we go campin’, I suggest we sleep intense.” So it goes through a couple hundred entries, which celebrate the stereotyped view of working-class Southerners and their distinctive dialect.

Martin Brady is a writer in Nashville.

As a stand-up comedian and, more recently, in his WB television program "Blue Collar TV," Jeff Foxworthy has gained a reputation for having a little more savoir faire than his redneck peers. That doesn't by any means put Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck Dictionary on the…

Humor, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Humor

In Hypochondria Can Kill

Review by bookpagedev

by Martin Brady

In Hypochondria Can Kill, British health journalist John Naish offers amusing, often ironic reportage on strange or little-known maladies that have been cataloged by health organizations worldwide. Naish writes in a style reminiscent of the syndicated column “News of the Weird,” soberly recounting endless varieties of rare but nonetheless legitimate physical conditions, arranged under 17 broad chapters, such as “Love and Sex,” “Headache or Tumor?” and “Sport and Leisure.” Naish addresses how the phenomenon of hypochondria exhibits itself within these contexts, and he lists some of the world’s most famous fakers. Included in this group are Florence Nightingale, Enrico Caruso, Igor Stravinsky and Marcel Proust, with Naish confirming that a lot of hypochondriacs live, albeit nervously, very full and long lives. There are plenty of smirks in the reading here, but more often Naish evokes a sense of incredulity about the strange ways of illness and wellness.

Martin Brady is a writer in Nashville.

Gift books get down to business

Review by bookpagedev

by Sharon Secor

Good for you! While everyone else is running around the mall searching for the perfect gift, you are taking an easier route choosing informative and timely books to please everyone on your list. Here are six books to supply any business curmudgeon with an "I’m glad I opened this" holiday smile.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t by Jim Collins is a thought-provoking challenge to American business. The author of the best-selling Built to Last, Collins now explores the most difficult test any company faces how to take a "good" business, with average profits and satisfied stock holders, and make that company "great." Based on a study of 11 companies who made the leap and sustained greatness for more than 15 years, Good to Great is THE gift for a manager or boss who wrestles with strategy issues and wants to know how to make a change.

Another sure pick is The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF by Paul Blustein. Technically, this is a public policy book that unabashedly spills the beans on how and why the Asian financial crisis caught the International Monetary Fund with its pants down.

Compelling and immediately spell-binding, The Chastening reveals inherent weaknesses in the global financial system. A perfect gift for policy wonks and market analysts as well as anyone in international trade.

Pick up The Natural Laws of Business by Richard Koch for anyone on your list who loves to think about theoretical issues in business. Does your boss pour over The Economist each month? Have a friend who delights in reading The Harvard Business Review? This intriguing book by the author of The 80/20 Principle applies scientific insight in physics, natural sciences and economics toward business success. Its result? A thought-provoking book that exercises the brain and limbers the innovation muscle.

I know, not everyone on your holiday list thinks the future looks bright for American business. For the pragmatist in every company (and you’ll usually find them behind the door marked "Finance") buy The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Next Decade by Michael Hammer. It’s a thought-provoking, get-real-about-your-business kind of book with a "tough times are coming" approach to the next 10 years. "It’s time for business to get serious again," says Hammer. Recent weeks prove he’s right. Just for fun, grab Dictionary of the Future by Faith Popcorn and Adam Hanft for that funky someone on your shopping list. This intriguing "dictionary" is full of terms that trend guru Faith Popcorn believes will have an impact on business in the near future. The book is divided into subjects like biology and technology, demographics and new behaviors, with words and meanings listed in each subject. Do you know what a Circle of Poison is? Or where your Content Room is? Get with it! A totally fascinating sourcebook for anyone with futurist tendencies, its main drawback is that once you start browsing the pages, you won’t want to stop.

Tried and true, books on how to make a portfolio achieve better results are always popular. The 100 Best Stocks to Own in America, Seventh Edition by Gene Walden is one of those good presents to unwrap. This updated edition features easy to understand analysis of 100 time-tested stocks with a simple and clear economic presentation of each. Walden annually selects stocks with earnings and stock growth potential, consistency and a good dividend yield. His advice will guide first-time investors as well as portfolio-savvy traders in the search for a strong portfolio return.

Sharon Secor is a business writer based in Minneapolis.

Biography

Biography

Scandal in the White House

Review by bookpagedev

by Howard Shirley

John Dean, who served as Nixon’s counsel during the Watergate era, takes a look at another president with a troubled reputation in Warren G. Harding. No stranger to controversy and condemnation in a chief executive, Dean considers the legacy of scandal associated with Harding and winds up with a convincing redemptive portrait. Tainted in history (and after his death in office) by the subsequent exposure of the infamous Teapot Dome scandal, Harding is often pilloried as leading “the most corrupt administration in American history.” Accused of complicity, laziness and lack of intellect, Harding has for many years served as a prime example of an administration gone wrong. Yet Dean places the realities of Harding’s actions and decisions under a microscope and argues that the label is largely myth. The result is an eye-opening examination of just how popular misconceptions can falsely darken the legacy of able men. Dean’s book provides an informative look at a relatively forgotten time in American history and may well change your view of Harding and his presidency.

Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.

John Dean, who served as Nixon's counsel during the Watergate era, takes a look at another president with a troubled reputation in Warren G. Harding. No stranger to controversy and condemnation in a chief executive, Dean considers the legacy of scandal associated with Harding and…

Children's & YA

Children's & YA

Leo’s casting call

Review by bookpagedev

by Dean Schneider

Leo’s casting call Twelve-year-old Leo feels like a canned sardine at home with his big, noisy family, and his frequent lapses into a Walter Mitty-like fantasy world have earned him the nickname “fog boy.” The school play is approaching, and Leo remembers three previous performances. He played a tree in one, and his bark fell off. He played an angel, and his wings fell off. When he delivered his line, “Is he hurt?” he said, “Is he glurt,” to the never-ending amusement of his siblings. When Leo tries out for Rumpopo’s Porch, written by his teacher, he expects the starring role but instead gets to play an old crone. Readers soon realize that the school play isn’t the only play being enacted here. Leo’s whole life is a play, but so far, he has always felt that everyone else was on stage, and he was the audience. Now he’s a player, learning the value of stories, whether they are Rumpopo’s in the play or his father’s stored away in the secret album Leo has found. Leo wonders about the journal entries and photographs his father kept during his early years. What about that list of goals, none of which his father has achieved? He never became a singer, dancer, writer or athlete, but instead, works as an accountant. Sharon Creech handles big themes here life, death, family and the role of art in life but as always, she writes with a light touch and a genuine affection for her characters. The novel is laid out as a play, opening with a list of scenes and a cast of characters. Dialogue is at times written as a script, and the whole script of Rumpopo’s Porch is included for teachers who might want to produce the play with their classes. Leo comes to appreciate the many players in his life and how a man like his father might play many parts. Just as Rumpopo told stories that changed characters’ lives, Papa gives Leo his Autobiography, Age of Thirteen, passing on his story, which has already changed Leo’s view of the part he will play in the theater of his life. Dean Schneider is an English teacher in Nashville.

Leo's casting call Twelve-year-old Leo feels like a canned sardine at home with his big, noisy family, and his frequent lapses into a Walter Mitty-like fantasy world have earned him the nickname "fog boy." The school play is approaching, and Leo remembers three previous performances.…