bookpagedev

MusicArts & Culture

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company’s annual convention, and he hasn’t a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your Web search returned hundreds of thousands of sites. What gift doesn’t require bloodhounds, a modem, or a fingerprint kit? Why books, of course! At some point, everyone must write a report, an article, or speech. Reference books are imperative for research and documentation, and the handier, the better. Random House’s Famous Name Finder ($14, 037570602X) is the perfect tool when you can remember a name but can’t quite place the person. This book will eliminate the need to ask, who’s that person you know, the one who was married to . . . because it cross-references 10,000 people from various fields, including sports, entertainment, the arts, and history. Can’t remember the first name? Can’t remember the last name? Can’t remember the real name? The Famous Name Finder is indexed by first name, last name, nickname, and spouse’s name; each entry also includes biographical information. How many times have you watched a movie based on a favorite book, and walked away thinking about the differences between the two? Novels into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books (Checkmark Books, $16.95, 0816039615) is a book that identifies and examines how a book is translated to the big screen. Each entry includes a brief synopsis of the novel, and the film or films that adapted its story. The differences between the two, as well as differences in themes, characters, etc., are studied. Brief bibliographies are listed at the end of each passage, and various photographs are included. There is some critique involved, but the major emphasis here is not to determine the success or failure of film adaptations, but rather to inform the reader of the unique and specific process that goes into the translation of print to film. With a foreword by director Robert Wise, Novels into Film is a great choice for folks who love books, movies, or both. Everyone is familiar with dictionaries and encyclopedias, but references books are taking different and exciting paths that extend beyond mere alphabetizing. The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People (Oxford University Press, $37.50, 0195215176) examines the lives of 1,000 well-known figures. From Aesop to Pele to William I, this is an ideal resource for short writing assignments, or a springboard for larger, more detailed amounts of research. Updated for the millennium, The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People also includes entries about more recent notables, such as Tom Cruise, Tony Blair, Bill Gates, and Diana, Princess of Wales, to name a few. Readers will find extra guidance from the directories in the back, organized by theme and period. This is a wonderful quick-reference addition to any workspace.

Picture this: a gorgeous volume of album covers. DK Publishing’s 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind the Sleeves ($19.95, 078944951X) provides music lovers with the inside scoop on the most artistically innovative album covers of all time. Learn about the visual artists behind the works, the labor-intense production schedules, the concepts behind the finished products and the alternative plans for jackets that were banned in certain countries. What makes this book particularly interesting is that authors Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell do not focus on the recording artists themselves; while certain Elvis, Beatles, and Prince albums are included, you’ll also find The Popinjays, System 7, and Happy Mondays receive equal page time. There’s plenty of insider information provided, but the focus is not on who topped the charts, but who had the eye-catching album covers. 100 Best Album Covers is a refreshing alternative for both music and art lovers. Cajun music is as flavorful as its food, and thanks to University Press of Mississippi, readers may sample it once again. Cajun and Creole Music Makers (Musiciens cadiens et creoles) has been re-issued and updated, thanks to author Barry Jean Ancelet and photographer Elemore Morgan Jr. Originally published in 1984, Cajun and Creole Music Makers is the definitive volume of Louisiana culture. To update the book for its re-issue, Ancelet and Morgan returned to the original material and added more recent musicians like Steve Riley and Dirk Powell. In some cases, such as Christine Balfa’s, it is a then and now perspective of Louisiana life. The text is featured in both English and French, and over 100 photographs show these musicians in various surroundings. The result is an intimate look at the inner workings and sustaining power behind the music. Who says information has to come in black and white text? Seaports of the South: A Journey (Longstreet Press, $25,1563524996) is very informative and also beautiful enough to display. Author Louis D. Rubin Jr. and photographer John F. Harrington look at 13 seaports found in South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Readers will travel with these two men, who have been friends since age 16, and marvel at the history and distinct personality that distinguish each seaport. Rubin and Harrington recount the development each port has undergone, particularly after the Civil War, and the unique commercial role that each seaport plays in our nation’s economy. Climb aboard and enjoy this spectacular journey through time and this region.

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company's annual convention, and he hasn't a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your…

Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

For most of his life, Tim Picasso has not had the means to support the lifestyle he feels he richly deserves. He has struggled as an artist, living out his bohemian existence in a Boston loft, “brooding, painting, and starving.” When a chance encounter with Andrew, an old college mate, offers him the opportunity for a free Caribbean sailing trip, Tim jumps at it. What he doesn’t know is that the sailboat has been stolen from Venezuela, and that it is laden with cocaine. ” ÔNo worries,’ said Andrew, Ôthey bought it off the Coast Guard . . .’ ” Things go from bad to worse when Andrew disappears off the side of the boat after a night’s carousing, and Tim is left to make his way back to the safety of the United States.

Upon arrival in the Florida Keys, Tim is greeted by a Florida Mafioso by the name of Jesus Castro. Jesus informs Tim in no uncertain terms that in Andrew’s absence, it is Tim’s responsibility to deliver the cocaine to an IRA agent in Boston, and that refusal would not be in Tim’s best interests. The IRA folks, in turn, will give Tim a briefcase to deliver to Jesus Castro. “And don’t you look in the bag or I @#$%^ kill you,” admonishes Jesus as Tim departs.

Well, you know Tim has to look in the briefcase, despite the dire warning from Jesus Castro. He finds, quite literally, a pirate’s fortune: $1.5 million dollars, half in bearer bonds, and half in $100 bills. Tim considers his options; he has no family to worry about, he has no significant other in his life. For that matter, he has no life. So he does what one does in that sort of situation he takes it on the lam. The gods, however, are nothing if not mischievous, and Tim makes it no further than a cheesy Cape Cod bed and breakfast just as the storm of the century is about to unleash its fury on the Eastern seaboard. An irritated make that enraged Jesus Castro is hot on his trail, and it’s anybody’s guess who will survive the multiple perils of crime, revenge, and high winds.

Monahan is a latter day “English-bad-boy” author, a worthy successor to Kingsley Amis. His understated cleverness and irreverence hold sway as he alternates between sly hipness and laugh-out-loud slapstick. Light House is his first novel, which has been optioned by Warner Bros. for the silver screen. Rumor has it that Monahan is home in Massachusetts, at work on his second.

Bruce Tierney is a writer in Nashville.

For most of his life, Tim Picasso has not had the means to support the lifestyle he feels he richly deserves. He has struggled as an artist, living out his bohemian existence in a Boston loft, "brooding, painting, and starving." When a chance encounter with…

Nonfiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

The last days of radio Ê It is not often that the death of a great cultural phenomenon can be precisely dated. Gerald Nachman, though, does it with pinpoint accuracy at the end of his Raised on Radio: On the night of September 30, 1962, when the last network radio show, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, went off the air, the voice of radio big-time, old-time radio, the home of comedy, drama, music, and news was stilled forever.

Nachman was, as his title says, raised on radio he caught the last few years of its golden age, from the mid-1940s to the very early ’50s and the glory of his book is that, in the preceding 500 pages, he captures what a marvelous, diverse voice it was. The book is not simply an exercise in nostalgia. It is an entertaining and informative book that should be of interest to anyone interested in American cultural history, an even better volume than last year’s The Great American Broadcast by Leonard Maltin, which was no slouch.

The problem is, where to begin? Except for sports, the author is so thorough, and both passionate and clear-headed, about his subject that he leaves little room for carping and too much to praise. Perhaps the best thing to do is to mention a few of his particular strengths.

His chapter on radio’s paramount wit, Fred Allen an engaged and committed satirist laced with outrage and a bleak outlook could hardly be better. Likewise, a related chapter on radio wise guys, including Henry Morgan and Bob and Ray (about whom Andy Rooney has the best comment: A lot of people think, as I do, that they appreciate Bob and Ray more than anyone else does ). This chapter also has a beautiful six-page analysis of and tribute to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.

Another superb chapter is that devoted to Jack Benny, whom Nachman aptly calls the Anticomedian. So secure was Benny in his talent and popularity that he allowed a whole show to be written with only one line for him. He was also a rare mensch in a business dominated by paranoid tyrants (including Red Skelton, who, contrary to his public persona, was mean and selfish).

One of his longest and most heartfelt chapters is devoted to Valued Families, not only the much-analyzed Ozzie and Harriet and Aldrich Family, but the far-less-noticed Vic and Sade. In this quirky and absurdist comedy, set in a woozier Winseburg, Ohio, Sade would go to washrag sales but only to browse. Ray Bradbury said Vic and Sade collected the lint, loose change, paper wads, keychains, and chewing gum of daily life. Then there are all the fascinating factoids that a reader can pick up. Abe Burrows, who wrote Duffy’s Tavern, was the father of James Burrows, who helped create television’s Cheers, which Nachman calls a yuppified Duffy’s. Harry Einstein, the vaudeville clown known on radio as Parkyakarkus, was the father of Albert Brooks.

And there’s the occasional penetrating perceptiveness, such as Jo Stafford’s comment on the effect her haunting voice had on servicemen during World War II: Something about my sound made them glad to be sad. But enough. If the end of radio was abrupt, it was not precipitous. Nachman points out that radio’s decline began when television’s ascent began, roughly around 1950.

But the advent of television need not have been a fatal blow, as the example of Britain demonstrates. In that green and pleasant land, radio thrives even in the shadow of television, with a smorgasbord of dramas, sitcoms, quizzes, documentaries, lectures, and more, and all for an annual tax of about $150, which, were it tried in this country, more than a few politicians would surely declare an intolerable burden on the hard-working American taxpayer.

Radio also declined because, in response to television’s deluge, it began desperately grasping at straws that hadn’t a hope of saving it, such as game-and-giveaway shows. Henry Morgan called Stop the Music the final nail in radio’s coffin. One of the keenest insights Nachman makes is that radio died because it failed to develop its real strength the spoken word. Reading and radio share one invaluable effect to which passive television is largely immune: the active engagement of their audiences. Nachman’s insight should, therefore, offer a lesson to what are clumsily known as the print media, which, in hot pursuit of ever more dazzling TV-style design, are in danger of cutting their own throats by failing to develop their real strength the printed word. Roger Miller is a freelance writer. He can be reached at roger@bookpage.com.

The last days of radio Ê It is not often that the death of a great cultural phenomenon can be precisely dated. Gerald Nachman, though, does it with pinpoint accuracy at the end of his Raised on Radio: On the night of September 30, 1962,…

Review

Review by bookpagedev

In February, 1995 novelist Linda Spalding set out on a journey deep into the rain forests of Indonesian Borneo to study the life of orangutan researcher Birute Galdikas. Along with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, Galdikas formed Louis Leakey’s famed trio of angels sent out to study the great apes in the wild. A Dark Place in the Jungle is Spalding’s riveting account of her own travels into the jungle and the unexpected discoveries she makes along the way. This thoughtful, impassioned book is the story of Spalding’s quest to reconnect with the natural world and to regain some of the closeness she once shared with her two grown daughters.

Although she does not meet Galdikas until her third trip to Borneo, Spalding encounters many of the ex-captive orangutans that the scientist has dedicated her life to preparing for return to the wild. Spalding’s colorful, detailed descriptions make it easy to believe that these elusive, tree-dwelling creatures are one of man’s closest relatives. Readers will be charmed by the Twisted Sisters, three inseparable young females that resemble a furry, multilegged creature from Oz, and Gistok, the naughty one whose pranks include locking Spalding’s daughter in the outhouse.

Despite such moments of levity, Spalding sees much to disturb her on her journeys into the forest. Readers will share her heartbreak in the devastation caused by clear-cutting for timber and gold mining, which has left the Sekonyer River the color of chocolate, with waters made toxic by mercury. Spalding’s encounters finally leave her disillusioned with Galdikas. Nonetheless, she does find some of what she’d come to the forest to discover. An evening in a remote Dayak village offers the chance to see a place still untouched by progress, where there is no sense of lack, but rather an enormous sense of regard for their mutual efforts. Here, Spalding feels at last that I knew who I was and I knew that I belonged, at least for the time I was there. I was taken on faith, which is quite an experience. Beth Duris works for the Nature Conservancy in Arlington, Virginia.

In February, 1995 novelist Linda Spalding set out on a journey deep into the rain forests of Indonesian Borneo to study the life of orangutan researcher Birute Galdikas. Along with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, Galdikas formed Louis Leakey's famed trio of angels sent out…

MusicArts & Culture

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company’s annual convention, and he hasn’t a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your Web search returned hundreds of thousands of sites. What gift doesn’t require bloodhounds, a modem, or a fingerprint kit? Why books, of course! At some point, everyone must write a report, an article, or speech. Reference books are imperative for research and documentation, and the handier, the better. Random House’s Famous Name Finder ($14, 037570602X) is the perfect tool when you can remember a name but can’t quite place the person. This book will eliminate the need to ask, who’s that person you know, the one who was married to . . . because it cross-references 10,000 people from various fields, including sports, entertainment, the arts, and history. Can’t remember the first name? Can’t remember the last name? Can’t remember the real name? The Famous Name Finder is indexed by first name, last name, nickname, and spouse’s name; each entry also includes biographical information. How many times have you watched a movie based on a favorite book, and walked away thinking about the differences between the two? Novels into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books (Checkmark Books, $16.95, 0816039615) is a book that identifies and examines how a book is translated to the big screen. Each entry includes a brief synopsis of the novel, and the film or films that adapted its story. The differences between the two, as well as differences in themes, characters, etc., are studied. Brief bibliographies are listed at the end of each passage, and various photographs are included. There is some critique involved, but the major emphasis here is not to determine the success or failure of film adaptations, but rather to inform the reader of the unique and specific process that goes into the translation of print to film. With a foreword by director Robert Wise, Novels into Film is a great choice for folks who love books, movies, or both. Everyone is familiar with dictionaries and encyclopedias, but references books are taking different and exciting paths that extend beyond mere alphabetizing. The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People (Oxford University Press, $37.50, 0195215176) examines the lives of 1,000 well-known figures. From Aesop to Pele to William I, this is an ideal resource for short writing assignments, or a springboard for larger, more detailed amounts of research. Updated for the millennium, The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People also includes entries about more recent notables, such as Tom Cruise, Tony Blair, Bill Gates, and Diana, Princess of Wales, to name a few. Readers will find extra guidance from the directories in the back, organized by theme and period. This is a wonderful quick-reference addition to any workspace.

Picture this: a gorgeous volume of album covers. DK Publishing’s 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind the Sleeves provides music lovers with the inside scoop on the most artistically innovative album covers of all time. Learn about the visual artists behind the works, the labor-intense production schedules, the concepts behind the finished products and the alternative plans for jackets that were banned in certain countries. What makes this book particularly interesting is that authors Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell do not focus on the recording artists themselves; while certain Elvis, Beatles, and Prince albums are included, you’ll also find The Popinjays, System 7, and Happy Mondays receive equal page time. There’s plenty of insider information provided, but the focus is not on who topped the charts, but who had the eye-catching album covers. 100 Best Album Covers is a refreshing alternative for both music and art lovers. Cajun music is as flavorful as its food, and thanks to University Press of Mississippi, readers may sample it once again. Cajun and Creole Music Makers (Musiciens cadiens et creoles) ($35, 1578061709) has been re-issued and updated, thanks to author Barry Jean Ancelet and photographer Elemore Morgan Jr. Originally published in 1984, Cajun and Creole Music Makers is the definitive volume of Louisiana culture. To update the book for its re-issue, Ancelet and Morgan returned to the original material and added more recent musicians like Steve Riley and Dirk Powell. In some cases, such as Christine Balfa’s, it is a then and now perspective of Louisiana life. The text is featured in both English and French, and over 100 photographs show these musicians in various surroundings. The result is an intimate look at the inner workings and sustaining power behind the music. Who says information has to come in black and white text? Seaports of the South: A Journey (Longstreet Press, $25,1563524996) is very informative and also beautiful enough to display. Author Louis D. Rubin Jr. and photographer John F. Harrington look at 13 seaports found in South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Readers will travel with these two men, who have been friends since age 16, and marvel at the history and distinct personality that distinguish each seaport. Rubin and Harrington recount the development each port has undergone, particularly after the Civil War, and the unique commercial role that each seaport plays in our nation’s economy. Climb aboard and enjoy this spectacular journey through time and this region.

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company's annual convention, and he hasn't a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your…

Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

A family blown apart by a terrorist bombing hardly seems the stuff of good literature, but Susan Richards Shreve fashions a disturbingly beautiful tale from this tragedy. The four McWilliams children spend their early years whisked around the world by their parents, James and Lucy McWilliams (known to each other as “Jaggers” and “Plum”), ex-Peace Corps veterans and all-around free spirits. June 11, 1974, alters the family forever, as the parents die in an explosion on an Italian train. From this point, Sam, the eldest child, assumes responsibility for his younger brother Oliver and their sisters, Charlotte and Julia. The novel traces their growth and Sam’s increasingly tight grip on his family; the burden of protecting them becomes imbedded in his psyche, a mixture of paranoia and megalomania induced by childhood trauma. While his intentions are noble to protect his remaining siblings his obsessive control is frightening. They recognize Sam’s neurosis, yet accede to his wishes: It is the only definition of family they know.

As adults, the McWilliams children form a comedy troupe called “Plum ∧ Jaggers,” and produce skits. Achieving cult status, they sign a deal with NBC. Moving from their Washington home to New York, the family performs on a live weekly television show as Sam’s slide into dementia gradually deepens. With the addition of a stranger stalking the McWilliamses on the streets of Manhattan, the story takes on an urgency that Shreve skillfully weaves into suspense.

Though the narrative itself engages from the opening pages, the characters are the novel’s most impressive feature. Without indulging in sentiment or clichŽ, Shreve imbues the McWilliams siblings with originality, personality, and distinct voices. They are a strange lot, no doubt, but entirely believable, and intensely interesting. Shreve’s style is detached and concise, deftly sidestepping extraneous exposition.

Plum ∧ Jaggers pulls off the neat trick of blending tragedy and comedy without the taint of melodrama. Relentlessly eloquent, witty, and sensitive, this novel reveals how four individuals pursue their lives after catastrophe. As the specter of their murdered parents looms over them, the McWilliams siblings demonstrate that healing is a process, a journey best undertaken with family.

Mike Paulson teaches English at Penn State University.

A family blown apart by a terrorist bombing hardly seems the stuff of good literature, but Susan Richards Shreve fashions a disturbingly beautiful tale from this tragedy. The four McWilliams children spend their early years whisked around the world by their parents, James and Lucy…

Fiction

The man behind the Man in Full

Review by bookpagedev

That earthquake you felt a week or so back? It had nothing to do with fault zones, volcanoes, or continental drift. Nope. This was strictly a book publishing phenomenon. What you felt was 1.2 million copies of Tom Wolfe’s big second novel, A Man in Full, hitting bookstore and library shelves all across the country.

If you’ve been paying attention, you probably predicted this temblor. It’s been 11 years since Wolfe’s first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, lit up the literary skies with its rambunctious send-up of New York City in the rough-and-tumble 1980s. In the past three or four months, interviews with Tom Wolfe have begun to appear with some regularity in major newspapers and national magazines, even as Wolfe labored to bring the hugely ambitious new novel to a conclusion. Finally, more than a month before its official publication, A Man in Full was nominated for a 1998 National Book Award. The only question now is how large a popular landslide will follow the initial tremor.

Set mostly in the New South, A Man in Full focuses on Charles Croker, a 60-year-old Atlanta real estate developer and one-time college football hero whose vast, diversified empire is tottering on the brink of collapse under a load of debt. Threatened with the loss of his power and such cherished possessions as his Gulfstream IV jet and a 29,000 acre south-Georgia plantation called Turpmtine, Croker cajoles, schemes, and maneuvers to shore up his overextended conglomerate. One of Croker’s decisions drastic layoffs at the Croker Global Foods warehouse not far from Oakland, California introduces a second major character, Conrad Hensley, an immensely likable young father of two who is about to endure an astonishing run of misfortune that leaves him with nothing, not even the shirt on his back. A third and sure to be controversial plot line concerns Roger White II, a light-skinned black lawyer who is hired to represent Fareek the Cannon Fanon, a Georgia Tech football star from the Atlanta slums who is accused of date-raping the daughter of a prominent white businessman.

That Wolfe weaves these plot lines together in both expected and unexpected ways should surprise no one by now. Until the publication of Bonfire of the Vanities, however, Wolfe contended that fiction was moribund. Then came Bonfire and a new literary manifesto ( Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast ) in which Wolfe espoused a type of novel that relies on highly detailed realism based on reporting and a type of story that actually entertains its readers.

And that is the kind of book Wolfe has sought to create in A Man in Full. By all accounts, Wolfe has paid a price for his efforts to produce a novel richer in detail and far broader in scope than anything he has previously attempted in fiction or nonfiction. Literary reporters recount the numerous blind alleys Wolfe pursued in his search for the right story; whole sections were jettisoned as the book took its final form. Ever the perfectionist, Wolfe continued changing and rewriting his manuscript right up to the moment it was delivered to the printer.

Now Wolfe’s work is done. A Man in Full is available to the public and it’s the reader’s turn to determine just how full A Man in Full is.

Alden Mudge lives about a mile from the Hayward Fault in Oakland, California.

That earthquake you felt a week or so back? It had nothing to do with fault zones, volcanoes, or continental drift. Nope. This was strictly a book publishing phenomenon. What you felt was 1.2 million copies of Tom Wolfe's big second novel, A Man in…

History

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Good writing. A gripping story filled with drama and suspense. Colorful characters who come alive on the page. All these elements, which we usually associate with novels, come together to make this history of the gay rights movement in America a fascinating, as well as enlightening, book.

During the 1950s and 1960s, gay rights activists such as Frank Kameny, Phyllis Lyon, and Del Martin established the fundamental principles of the movement that homosexuals were normal and had a right to express their love and enjoy civil liberties. Out for Good begins with the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn bar in New York City. It was after Stonewall, claim authors Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, that gay and lesbian activists adopted the more radical tactics that actually brought about significant change. The book ends in 1992, when presidential candidate Bill Clinton spoke out for gay and lesbian rights at a gay fund raiser.

Meticulous and exhaustive research is what transforms Out for Good from a historical account into a human narrative. In addition to pouring through archival and library collections, New York Times journalists Clendinen and Nagourney conducted almost 700 interviews with 330 people. As a result, they are able to present key characters such as Martha Shelley, one of the dominant personalities in the Gay Liberation Front; Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church; and Gay Activist Alliance member Ron Gold.

Clendenin and Nagourney admit up front that their history isn’t comprehensive or encyclopedic. Rather, they claim, their almost 700-page book provides a definitive look at a unique civil rights movement, unique because it is shaped, as no other movement has been, by sex and the AIDS plague.

It’s easy to take things for granted. A well-told history such as this one reminds us, whether we are young or old, heterosexual or homosexual, that whatever rights and acceptance gays and lesbians now enjoy were hard-won by courageous men and women who stood up for themselves and, in many cases, became heroes to their cause.

Connie Miller is pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing.

Good writing. A gripping story filled with drama and suspense. Colorful characters who come alive on the page. All these elements, which we usually associate with novels, come together to make this history of the gay rights movement in America a fascinating, as well as…

Children's & YA

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company’s annual convention, and he hasn’t a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your Web search returned hundreds of thousands of sites. What gift doesn’t require bloodhounds, a modem, or a fingerprint kit? Why books, of course! Ê ÊAt some point, everyone must write a report, an article, or speech. Reference books are imperative for research and documentation, and the handier, the better. Random House’s Famous Name Finder ($14, 037570602X) is the perfect tool when you can remember a name but can’t quite place the person. This book will eliminate the need to ask, who’s that person you know, the one who was married to . . . because it cross-references 10,000 people from various fields, including sports, entertainment, the arts, and history. Can’t remember the first name? Can’t remember the last name? Can’t remember the real name? The Famous Name Finder is indexed by first name, last name, nickname, and spouse’s name; each entry also includes biographical information. How many times have you watched a movie based on a favorite book, and walked away thinking about the differences between the two? Novels into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books (Checkmark Books, $16.95, 0816039615) is a book that identifies and examines how a book is translated to the big screen. Each entry includes a brief synopsis of the novel, and the film or films that adapted its story. The differences between the two, as well as differences in themes, characters, etc., are studied. Brief bibliographies are listed at the end of each passage, and various photographs are included. There is some critique involved, but the major emphasis here is not to determine the success or failure of film adaptations, but rather to inform the reader of the unique and specific process that goes into the translation of print to film. With a foreword by director Robert Wise, Novels into Film is a great choice for folks who love books, movies, or both. Everyone is familiar with dictionaries and encyclopedias, but references books are taking different and exciting paths that extend beyond mere alphabetizing. The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People examines the lives of 1,000 well-known figures. From Aesop to Pele to William I, this is an ideal resource for short writing assignments, or a springboard for larger, more detailed amounts of research. Updated for the millennium, The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People also includes entries about more recent notables, such as Tom Cruise, Tony Blair, Bill Gates, and Diana, Princess of Wales, to name a few. Readers will find extra guidance from the directories in the back, organized by theme and period. This is a wonderful quick-reference addition to any workspace.

Picture this: a gorgeous volume of album covers. DK Publishing’s 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind the Sleeves ($19.95, 078944951X) provides music lovers with the inside scoop on the most artistically innovative album covers of all time. Learn about the visual artists behind the works, the labor-intense production schedules, the concepts behind the finished products and the alternative plans for jackets that were banned in certain countries. What makes this book particularly interesting is that authors Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell do not focus on the recording artists themselves; while certain Elvis, Beatles, and Prince albums are included, you’ll also find The Popinjays, System 7, and Happy Mondays receive equal page time. There’s plenty of insider information provided, but the focus is not on who topped the charts, but who had the eye-catching album covers. 100 Best Album Covers is a refreshing alternative for both music and art lovers. Cajun music is as flavorful as its food, and thanks to University Press of Mississippi, readers may sample it once again. Cajun and Creole Music Makers (Musiciens cadiens et creoles) ($35, 1578061709) has been re-issued and updated, thanks to author Barry Jean Ancelet and photographer Elemore Morgan Jr. Originally published in 1984, Cajun and Creole Music Makers is the definitive volume of Louisiana culture. To update the book for its re-issue, Ancelet and Morgan returned to the original material and added more recent musicians like Steve Riley and Dirk Powell. In some cases, such as Christine Balfa’s, it is a then and now perspective of Louisiana life. The text is featured in both English and French, and over 100 photographs show these musicians in various surroundings. The result is an intimate look at the inner workings and sustaining power behind the music. Who says information has to come in black and white text? Seaports of the South: A Journey (Longstreet Press, $25,1563524996) is very informative and also beautiful enough to display. Author Louis D. Rubin Jr. and photographer John F. Harrington look at 13 seaports found in South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Readers will travel with these two men, who have been friends since age 16, and marvel at the history and distinct personality that distinguish each seaport. Rubin and Harrington recount the development each port has undergone, particularly after the Civil War, and the unique commercial role that each seaport plays in our nation’s economy. Climb aboard and enjoy this spectacular journey through time and this region.

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company's annual convention, and he hasn't a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your…
History

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Louis Kilzer has taken on one of the most intriguing puzzles of World War II in his gripping, well-researched book about treachery in the Third Reich. Most war historians suspected that Hitler had a traitor who was leaking internal secrets, but who was that person? In a carefully woven story, Kilzer unmasks the only one who could have been the world’s most successful spy.

Russia’s Red Army ran a highly sophisticated spy ring in Switzerland, orchestrated by Maria Poliakova, who was recruited early in life as a member of the intelligence service. Her code name was “Gisela” and the network she ran was known as “Gisela’s family.” The spy ring had a number of sources from which to draw, ranging from the Army’s high command to the German foreign office. But the most important spy of all was known as Werther. His information would ultimately help destroy the Third Reich.

After the conquest of France, Hitler moved the bulk of his troops to the Eastern Front. The intent was to destroy the Red Army of Russia and grab hold of Moscow. Only two things stood in his way: weather and Werther.

Of the two, Werther was by far the most deadly. When the Germans were bogged down around Stalingrad, Werther supplied Stalin with detailed information about the location of Hitler’s panzers, where they were headed, and precisely how many troops were in reserve.

So detailed were Werther’s reports to Moscow Center that it tried to “backcheck” his information. Stalin once insisted on knowing his identity. The spy network refused, which is one of the few times Stalin was rejected. It may be that the spy network didn’t actually know who Werther was.

Werther acted with impunity, and it is difficult to understand why Hitler, with all his resources and his canny insight, didn’t know of the traitor in his bosom. But as Kilzer notes, “For whatever reason, Hitler allowed the culture of treason to surround him until it destroyed him.” At one time or another, it appeared that everybody in high places conspired to destroy the little man with the funny mustache. One bomb went off at his East Prussian headquarters, but Hitler was unharmed. The plotters or some of them were quickly executed.

Certainly one branch of the conspiracy was the Abwehr the Army’s own intelligence organization. Gen. Hans Oster, the number two man, almost openly talked of bringing Hitler down. My choice for Werther would have been Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, who headed the Abwehr. But the chronology doesn’t fit. Hitler sacked him before Moscow Center got many of Werther’s messages.

Kilzer, the author of Churchill’s Deception, has done a bang-up job with his latest book. We now know who Werther was. Hitler’s Traitor is guaranteed to keep the reader spellbound while the agent is unmasked.

Lloyd Armour is a retired newspaper editor in Nashville.

Solving the ultimate caper BookPage recently talked to Louis Kilzer, an investigative reporter with the Rocky Mountain News and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, about his search for the true identity of the spy in Hitler’s inner circle.

BookPage: The obvious first question about Hitler’s Traitor is whether you worked from back to front. That is, did you begin with a conviction that Martin Bormann was a traitor to Hitler or did you discover that along the way? Louis Kilzer: I had suspicions before I started the book, but I didn’t know how strong of a case it would end up being. It turned out to be a pretty strong case.

BP: How and when did you first get interested in this project? LK: I did a book in 1994 [Churchill’s Deception] about the Rudolf Hess mission that entailed research that occurred from 1991 onward. I went to the Soviet Union in May 1991, just three months before the Soviet Empire ended, to access KGB records. Then I did extensive research at the U.S. National Archives and developed a suspicion at that point that Bormann may have been involved in this ultimate caper.

BP: Did it surprise you that women played such an important role in this story? LK: That was fascinating. The people who first wrote about the Swiss spy ring were all men and they, of course, were credited by male historians with having run the ring. But when you look into the original OSS and CIA records, it becomes obvious that the key roles were played by women.

BP: How did your opinion of Bormann change while writing the book? LK: Bormann is a mystery figure. My view of him hardened. I did not know the extent to which he contributed to the Holocaust until I researched this book. He was, in fact, one of the prime movers of the Holocaust. Put that together with what he was doing in the spy ring, and it is very difficult to understand. I don’t fully understand it to this day.

BP: If this information about Bormann had been discovered in the immediate aftermath of the war, what effect do you think it would have had? LK: I believe the Soviets would have been rather embarrassed. The Soviet Union had no interest…in letting that secret out because, for the Soviets, it was the Red Army that won the war and not a spy ring. That would take away from the prestige of the Red Army.

Louis Kilzer has taken on one of the most intriguing puzzles of World War II in his gripping, well-researched book about treachery in the Third Reich. Most war historians suspected that Hitler had a traitor who was leaking internal secrets, but who was that person?…
Memoir

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Perhaps still best known in this country for his portrayal of the unflappable gentleman’s gentleman Jeeves in the BBC/PBS Jeeves and Wooster series, Stephen Fry is a writer, actor, and comedian just the shady side of 40. He would admit that some of his life has been pretty shady indeed. It has also been so eventful and so worth musing upon that in this volume he gets only as far as his acceptance to Cambridge. The promise of a sequel is implicit, and anyone who enjoys the shenanigans, opinions, digressions, and divertissements of this, Fry’s first formally autobiographical book, will want to pressure him to write ever more quickly.

Fry has used his early life as literary material before. His novel The Liar gave us some idea of his turbulent years at an English public school and of his first love, for a fellow student. It is that mad love that stands at the center of this ruthlessly frank memoir. Coming with the full emotional chaos of puberty and to a boy already alienated from most of his schoolmates by a loathing of everything athletic this early passion helped unhinge Fry. In only a few years, he became a liar, a thief, a truant (he was ultimately expelled), and a near suicide. Yet, in a book bracingly free of recriminations and grudges, Fry blames no one for his crimes, misdemeanors, or adolescent unhappiness. One of Fry’s many targets for he is a sane and able polemicist is facile psychologizing, easy excuses, fuzzy thinking.

Fry addresses the reader directly, abandons chronology, flies onto tangents ranging from the sublime nature of music to lessons learned from E. M. Forster and Montaigne, engages in riotous wordplay, and charms with a wit like that of his hero Oscar Wilde. One of his schoolmasters once tagged him, ambivalently, as exuberant. That exuberance made this unique autobiography a huge bestseller in England and should win over a large, enthusiastic audience here.

Randall Curb is a writer in Greensboro, Alabama.

Perhaps still best known in this country for his portrayal of the unflappable gentleman's gentleman Jeeves in the BBC/PBS Jeeves and Wooster series, Stephen Fry is a writer, actor, and comedian just the shady side of 40. He would admit that some of his life…

FilmArts & Culture

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company’s annual convention, and he hasn’t a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your Web search returned hundreds of thousands of sites. What gift doesn’t require bloodhounds, a modem, or a fingerprint kit? Why books, of course! Ê ÊAt some point, everyone must write a report, an article, or speech. Reference books are imperative for research and documentation, and the handier, the better. Random House’s Famous Name Finder ($14, 037570602X) is the perfect tool when you can remember a name but can’t quite place the person. This book will eliminate the need to ask, who’s that person you know, the one who was married to . . . because it cross-references 10,000 people from various fields, including sports, entertainment, the arts, and history. Can’t remember the first name? Can’t remember the last name? Can’t remember the real name? The Famous Name Finder is indexed by first name, last name, nickname, and spouse’s name; each entry also includes biographical information. How many times have you watched a movie based on a favorite book, and walked away thinking about the differences between the two? Novels into Film: The Encyclopedia of Movies Adapted from Books is a book that identifies and examines how a book is translated to the big screen. Each entry includes a brief synopsis of the novel, and the film or films that adapted its story. The differences between the two, as well as differences in themes, characters, etc., are studied. Brief bibliographies are listed at the end of each passage, and various photographs are included. There is some critique involved, but the major emphasis here is not to determine the success or failure of film adaptations, but rather to inform the reader of the unique and specific process that goes into the translation of print to film. With a foreword by director Robert Wise, Novels into Film is a great choice for folks who love books, movies, or both. Everyone is familiar with dictionaries and encyclopedias, but references books are taking different and exciting paths that extend beyond mere alphabetizing. The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People (Oxford University Press, $37.50, 0195215176) examines the lives of 1,000 well-known figures. From Aesop to Pele to William I, this is an ideal resource for short writing assignments, or a springboard for larger, more detailed amounts of research. Updated for the millennium, The Oxford Children’s Book of Famous People also includes entries about more recent notables, such as Tom Cruise, Tony Blair, Bill Gates, and Diana, Princess of Wales, to name a few. Readers will find extra guidance from the directories in the back, organized by theme and period. This is a wonderful quick-reference addition to any workspace.

Picture this: a gorgeous volume of album covers. DK Publishing’s 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind the Sleeves ($19.95, 078944951X) provides music lovers with the inside scoop on the most artistically innovative album covers of all time. Learn about the visual artists behind the works, the labor-intense production schedules, the concepts behind the finished products and the alternative plans for jackets that were banned in certain countries. What makes this book particularly interesting is that authors Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell do not focus on the recording artists themselves; while certain Elvis, Beatles, and Prince albums are included, you’ll also find The Popinjays, System 7, and Happy Mondays receive equal page time. There’s plenty of insider information provided, but the focus is not on who topped the charts, but who had the eye-catching album covers. 100 Best Album Covers is a refreshing alternative for both music and art lovers. Cajun music is as flavorful as its food, and thanks to University Press of Mississippi, readers may sample it once again. Cajun and Creole Music Makers (Musiciens cadiens et creoles) ($35, 1578061709) has been re-issued and updated, thanks to author Barry Jean Ancelet and photographer Elemore Morgan Jr. Originally published in 1984, Cajun and Creole Music Makers is the definitive volume of Louisiana culture. To update the book for its re-issue, Ancelet and Morgan returned to the original material and added more recent musicians like Steve Riley and Dirk Powell. In some cases, such as Christine Balfa’s, it is a then and now perspective of Louisiana life. The text is featured in both English and French, and over 100 photographs show these musicians in various surroundings. The result is an intimate look at the inner workings and sustaining power behind the music. Who says information has to come in black and white text? Seaports of the South: A Journey (Longstreet Press, $25,1563524996) is very informative and also beautiful enough to display. Author Louis D. Rubin Jr. and photographer John F. Harrington look at 13 seaports found in South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Readers will travel with these two men, who have been friends since age 16, and marvel at the history and distinct personality that distinguish each seaport. Rubin and Harrington recount the development each port has undergone, particularly after the Civil War, and the unique commercial role that each seaport plays in our nation’s economy. Climb aboard and enjoy this spectacular journey through time and this region.

Lifestyles of the musical and famous Your friend Fred must make a speech at his company's annual convention, and he hasn't a clue where to begin collecting his information. You want to help Fred with his fact-finding mission, but private detectives are pricey, and your…
Biography

Long live the King

Review by bookpagedev

The King may be dead, but the books keep coming. In the 21 years since Elvis Presley’s death, on August 16, 1977, a veritable cottage publishing industry has emerged. A year ago, when I was adding to the bulging shelves as co-author (with Peter Harry Brown) of Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley I counted more than 300 titles. And those were just the English-language entries! Why? Chalk up the interest, in part, to Presley’s status in popular culture: he was the pulsating force of a revolution that got a generation all shook up. Then there’s the man himself and the enigma. And of course, there is the music. Music is the heart of one of the latest Elvis entries, Elvis Presley: A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions ( St. Martin’s, $35, 0312185723), which is lavishly detailed and illustrated. Written by the authoritative Ernst Jorgensen, the book’s revelations range from the obscure (the first Elvis song to boast percussion was I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone ) to the heart-breaking (during his last concert, a slurry and sadly bloated Elvis introduced Are You Lonesome Tonight? and then, as if to answer, said, and I am. . . ). Jorgensen, an Elvis fan turned director of RCA’s Elvis catalogue, also underscores an overlooked Elvis talent as a savvy music producer. As a promoter, no one was more savvy than former carnival huckster Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s longtime manager, and subject of My Boy Elvis: The Colonel Tom Parker Story (Barricade, $22, 1569801274). This is the first of a spate of upcoming titles about the colorful Parker, who passed away in 1997, and though some anecdotes related by Sean O’Neal (Elvis Inc: The Fall and Rise of the Presley Empire) are familiar to Presleyphiles, there are new details about the Colonel’s early years. O’Neal also adroitly analyzes the Colonel’s motives for wanting Elvis to do Army time and details how he masterminded the post-Army career comeback. Elvis’s movie career, pre- and post-Army, is the subject of Eric Braun’s The Elvis Film Encyclopedia: An Impartial Guide to the Films of Elvis (Overlook Press, $23.95, 0879518146). Actually, it’s not all that impartial. In grading the songs from Elvis’s films, Braun gives three stars (out of a possible five) to the embarrassing Confidence, from the movie Clambake. And he gives just two stars to Can’t Help Falling in Love, the great Presley ballad from Blue Hawaii. Quibbles with ratings aside, the text is informative, as well as lively. The same can be said for most Elvis movies. Early Elvis is remembered in Elvis, Hank, and Me: Making Musical History on the Louisiana Hayride (St. Martin’s, $23.95, 0312185731), in which Horace Logan (with co-author Bill Sloan), recounts his days as producer and emcee of the show, which was broadcast over CBS radio. After bombing at the Grand Ole Opry, a young Elvis found a home away from home at the Shreveport program, which introduced him to much of the country and also featured music legends including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Slim Whitman. Elvis’s early career is also recalled in That’s Alright, Elvis: The Untold Story of Elvis’s First Guitarist and Manager, Scotty Moore (Schirmer, $25, 0028645995), as told to James Dickerson. Way back when, Moore, bass player Bill Black, and Elvis were known as the Blue Moon Boys. From those early days on the road, to his latter-day revival, Moore (a Gibson man) has been a pivotal musical force. Moving from music to marriage: Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (Berkley Boulevard Books, $7.50, 0425165442), contradicts the official story delivered by Priscilla in her autobiography. Elvis’s famed ex has long maintained that she was a virgin when she finally married The King. Not so per this account, by Suzanne Finstad which relies heavily on the allegations of a former Presley buddy named Currie Grant (who has since been hit with a lawsuit, over his claims, by Priscilla). It was Grant who introduced the 14-year-old schoolgirl to the world’s most famous G.I., then 25, and stationed in Germany. But first, says Grant, he coerced the virginal Priscilla into sleeping with him as a kind of payment. As Finstad put it, She had entered into a Faustian pact to meet Elvis. It should be noted that Grant, at the time of the alleged tryst with the teenager, was 28, married, and the father of two. Along with sex and drugs, this page-turner includes a good cat fight between Priscilla and an Elvis fan complete with screaming and hair-pulling and a National Enquirer-ish ploy, with the use of a voice stress test to determine who’s telling the truth, in a tape-recorded encounter between Priscilla and Grant. I still don’t know who to believe . . . On the novelty side, Elvis gets the pop-up treatment in Elvis Remembered: A Three-Dimensional Celebration (Pop-Up Press, $29.95, 1888443456). See Elvis pop-up at the 1956 Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, which marked his landmark return to his hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi. He also cuts quite a 3-D figure in his famous gold lame suit, during his 1968 comeback concert, and during the so-called Jumpsuit Tours. In The Quotable King (Cumberland House, $8.95, 188895244X) Elvis’s words pop-out as categorized by Elizabeth McKeon and Linda Everett in chapters such as Early Elvis, Meet the Press, and Elvis on Elvis. There are Elvis’s observations on movies ( The only thing that’s worse than watching a bad movie is being in one ); his taste in burgers ( I like it done well. I ain’t ordering a pet ); and more. Speaking of more: Due in November is Elvis Presley 1956 (Abrams, $17.95, 0810908999), featuring photos by Marvin Israel. January will see the publication of Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown, $27.95, 0316332224). This is Peter Guralnick’s follow-up to his acclaimed 1994 early Elvis biography, Last Train to Memphis. Also due in January is Colonel Tom Parker: The Carny Who Managed the King, by James Dickerson (Watson-Guptill, $24.95, 0823084213).

Who said Elvis was dead? Biographer Pat H. Broeske is also a Hollywood reporter who regularly contributes to Entertainment Weekly.

The King may be dead, but the books keep coming. In the 21 years since Elvis Presley's death, on August 16, 1977, a veritable cottage publishing industry has emerged. A year ago, when I was adding to the bulging shelves as co-author (with Peter…

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