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The Icon and the Idealist

The Icon and the Idealist is a compelling, warts-and-all dual biography of the warring leaders of the early 20th-century birth control movement: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett.
The Icon and the Idealist is a compelling, warts-and-all dual biography of the warring leaders of the early 20th-century birth control movement: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett.
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Self-Help

Realizing a sister’s vision

Behind the Book by Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas

<b>Realizing a sister’s vision</b> Our sister, Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, passionately pursued a dream: the creation of a book called <b>You Can Do It!</b>.

The book was a distillation of the way she lived her life with creativity, courage, and an infectious exuberance and the way she hoped to spread the words of the book’s title to other women. Her message is best summed up by a line from the movie <i>The Shawshank Redemption</i>, a quote she stuck on her fridge: Get busy living or get busy dying. The quote is especially poignant because we lost Lauren, a passenger on United Flight 93, on September 11, 2001.

But while tragedy ended her life, it far from defined it. The Lauren working on <b>You Can Do It!</b> was a woman in her mid-30s who loved learning, having new experiences and facing down fears. A married career woman, she knew that daily to-do lists made it next to impossible for women to think about, let alone get around to doing, the things on their <i>want</i>-to-do lists. But she also knew how wonderful she felt when she made the time to dream and dare and do the things on her own such list, and she felt she had a surefire way to invite other women to experience the thrill of accomplishment.

Lauren was inspired by the concept of Girl Scout badges. She envisioned a book that would offer a tantalizing menu of the kinds of things women so often say they’re too busy, tired or afraid to try, broken down into fun and doable steps and capped at the finish line with a tangible, ta-da reward: a badge.

Lauren bubbled with excitement when she talked about her dream book and in her can-do style, she took it very seriously, going so far as to quit her job to work full-time toward its publication.

So after Lauren’s death, even in the midst of shock and grief, we wondered, what about Lauren’s book? We knew nothing about book publishing, had resolved as a family to keep our grief private and were extremely wary of anyone exploiting Lauren’s life story in any way. But the book had meant the world to Lauren. Was there a way for us to finish what she had started? We made contact with Caroline Herter, the independent book producer Lauren had teamed up with. Slowly and carefully, we all moved forward, spending more than two years creating the 500-page book covering activities from acting to activism, surfing to singing, growing a garden to growing a business. Lauren’s vision was realized in 60 chapters, complete with full-color, peel-and-stick badges. To make it a true women-helping-women book, accomplished women in many fields provided real-world mentoring. These busy women (including the executive editor of <i>Kiplinger’s Personal Finance</i> magazine, the leader of the first women’s ascent of Annapurna, and the founder of Shepherd’s Garden Seeds catalog) gave a first glimpse of how the book would be embraced by donating their time and talents.

The resulting book is exactly what Lauren imagined. Practical and inspiring, it’s a bit like a great cookbook. You pick it up thinking that you are looking for one thing and wind up finding 20 other things you can’t wait to try! Every step of the way, we have tried to be Lauren’s eyes and ears, and now, her voice. This isn’t always easy. Doing this on Lauren’s behalf (and on behalf of the Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas Foundation, where a portion of proceeds from the book will go) feels right, but there’s no way around it: on some days the deep sorrow that <i>Lauren</i> isn’t doing this comes to the fore. Working side by side, as sisters <i>for</i> our sister is comforting, and we’ve also found that the book has been positive for our whole family. The book is Lauren, and working on it together has, in a very real and meaningful way, kept her close to us.

We remember talking to Lauren about how amazing it would be to someday see two women sitting at a cafŽ with a copy of <b>You Can Do It!</b> on the table between them. That’s no longer a dream. Now, women can hear Lauren say, "C’mon! Live the biggest, boldest, best life you can while you can." The publication of <b>You Can Do It!</b> means that Lauren’s dream has finally come true, which doesn’t really surprise us; Lauren <i>always</i> knew we could all do it!

<b>Realizing a sister's vision</b> Our sister, Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, passionately pursued a dream: the creation of a book called <b>You Can Do It!</b>.

The book was a distillation of the way she lived her life with creativity, courage, and an infectious exuberance and…

Biography

Review

Review by bookpagedev

In Dean Acheson’s 1969 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his years in the State Department (1941-1953), Present at the Creation, he wrote, In a sense, the postwar years were a period of creation, for the ordering of which I shared with others some responsibility. Historian James Chace demonstrates in his outstanding biography, Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World, that as Under Secretary and then as Secretary of State, Acheson was the prime mover behind major U.S. foreign policy initiatives in this period when a new world was being created. Chace considers Acheson the most important figure in American foreign policy since John Quincy Adams, and his book meticulously details why this is so. As Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Acheson faced many challenges. He played a key role in clarifying the language of the Lend-Lease agreement between the U.S and Great Britain, led the State Department’s delegation to the Bretton Woods conference where the International Monetary and the World Bank were agreed on, skillfully crafted the Truman Doctrine, and began work on the studies that led to the proposal for a Marshall Plan to assist Europe economically. All of these endeavors required doing a super sales job on Congress.

During his tenure as Secretary of State, he pushed for the security pact which later became known as NATO. In 1950 he and the President decided to treat the North Korean aggression as a local war and thus established a Cold War precedent for fighting a limited war rather than a general war. Acheson backed Truman’s dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur for exceeding his authority during the Korean War. And Acheson was never more masterful than when he spent seven days before Senate committees defending administration policy in that matter. Decisions on China, the unification and/or division of Germany, how to assist Japan, and many other policy matters were made which shaped the way much of the world developed for decades. Acheson and State Department employees were attacked mercilessly during this period by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others for alleged disloyalty and losing China. The key to Acheson’s achievements and the administration’s was that, unlike some other presidents, President Truman did not want to run foreign policy from the White House. Instead, he wanted respect, consultation, and the right to make final decisions. Acheson understood this and never failed to provide him with the personal touches that Truman craved. Acheson was not and ideologue but an intensely pragmatic man, impatient with abstractions. Although he became strongly anti-Communist, he did not have a grand design. After leaving office, his advice was sought by other presidents, Kennedy, Johnson, and even Richard Nixon, who had been one of Acheson’s most vociferous critics.

Chace’s superb study helps to view the private person as well as the public figure, detailing Acheson’s early career as a law clerk and the influential relationships in his life, including those with friends and family. Acheson is absorbing reading about an extraordinary, if, at times, controversial, public servant who helped to chart the way through the uncertain foreign policy waters at a crucial point in our history. Roger Bishop is a monthly contributor to BookPage.

In Dean Acheson's 1969 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his years in the State Department (1941-1953), Present at the Creation, he wrote, In a sense, the postwar years were a period of creation, for the ordering of which I shared with others some responsibility. Historian James…

LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Let’s get physical

Behind the Book by James McManus

My new book, Physical: An American Checkup, probably sprang from an Abe Lincoln quote I first came across many years ago: I must study the plain, physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right. And from crazier notions I came up with on my own, such as: The truth is, I don’t think I’m going to die. Not today, not tomorrow, not in 2067. Not me.

As I reached my late 40s, I thought things like that more and more often. In April 2002, a stitch along the left side of my abdomen suddenly graduated into an aching throb. I’d turned 51 in late March and was just beginning to get my feet underneath me again after the death of my son James from a drug overdose. I had tenure as a lit and writing professor, my second marriage was flourishing, and my book about poker (Positively Fifth Street) was scheduled to be published the following March. I felt pretty good about things, as long as you didn’t count the abscess in my soul where my son lived. But within a couple of days the thorn in my side, as I thought of it, had me walking hunched over like a little old man with bad knees and end-stage cirrhosis, not exactly the image I like to project to the world. As the throbbing intensified, I gulped down more Advil and worried.

I’d been taking Zocor to lower my cholesterol for almost two years, this while neglecting to get my liver function tested. Lynn Martin, my primary care physician, had told me to have it checked after three months because the possible side effects of the medicine included nephritis and liver damage, but I somehow forgot. I knew I’d been dosing myself far too liberally with Advil for headaches and hangovers, so my self-diagnosis was liver failure, though the phrase I used with my wife, Jennifer, was some liver thing. It was only at Jennifer’s insistence that I finally made an appointment to have my liver enzymes tested. I also stopped drinking and, in spite of the crippling pain, as I phrased it to myself, stopped taking Advil, even though I understood the damage was already done. Oh, and another thing, Braino, Jennifer said after wishing me luck and dropping me off at the lab. Your liver’s on your right side, not on your left.

The first appointment I could get was with Dr. Martin’s partner, Dennis Hughes. Tallish, maybe 40, all business, Hughes glanced at the blood test results, felt around where I’d told him it hurt, asked a few questions, then told me I probably had diverticulitis. Your liver’s functioning perfectly. Hughes e-mailed scrips for painkillers and antibiotics to my Walgreen’s and recommended a CT scan of my abdomen, which would confirm his diagnosis. The colonoscopy two weeks later will confirm that it’s all healed up nicely. I nodded. Had I missed something? The practice had just been computerized, and Hughes was happy to demonstrate how my records, medications, etc., were all in the system. The referrals for your scan and colonoscopy are already at Evanston Hospital. Terrific. The antibiotics killed the infection, or at least the symptoms, in a couple of days, so I was able to squirrel the unused painkillers into my party stash. When I called to report the good news, a nurse reminded me I still needed to get a colonoscopy. I’ll make the appointment as soon as I hang up, I told her, then sat down to breakfast, all better.

Days went by. Maybe a week. The pain was long gone, and I’d heard all about colonoscopies. You fasted for two or three days while slurping battery acid; step two involved a fully articulated four-foot-long aluminum bullwhip with a search light, a video camera and a lasso at the tip getting launched a few feet up into your large intestine. Not to worry, however. They used really super-duper lubrication. While discussing some unrelated business with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper’s, I happened to mention my gastrointestinal adventure. Next thing I knew, Lewis was proposing that I go to the Mayo Clinic for what he called their executive physical, then write a big story about it. Now, this was a guy who had already changed my life by sending me to cover the 2000 World Series of Poker, so I had every reason to trust him. Yet the Mayo proposal triggered a whirlwind of panic. Accepting this plummy assignment would more or less guarantee I’d be told things I did not want to hear. The good news, Mr. McManus, is you’ve got almost five weeks to live. The bad news is, we started counting over a month ago. What if the Mayo clinicians discovered a tumor the size of a Titleist wedged inoperably between my pons and my creative left hemisphere? What if as they certainly would they made me swear off alcohol, tasty food and my nightly postprandial Parliament Light? It wasn’t that I didn’t understand how lucky I was to be offered a free Mayo Clinic physical, I just had too many other things on my plate turf and surf, garlic mashed potatoes, baked ziti, the take-out Mekong Fried Pork from the Phat Phuc Noodle Bar. But no! Not only would I have to drink gallons of icky stuff before I got reamed, they’d make me give up all the good stuff! To say nothing of my terror that the verdict might not be all that rosy.

Bottom line? I couldn’t get more medical treatment unless I followed up like I’d promised: my referral was already in the system, gosh darn it unless I got a colonoscopy as part of the Mayo thing. That way I could get everything checked in 72 hours, all under one roof, by the best of the best of the best. It was time to cowboy up and take my medicine.

Poker columnist for the New York Times and author of the bestseller Positively Fifth Street (2003), James McManus has also written four novels. He teaches writing and literature at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

My new book, Physical: An American Checkup, probably sprang from an Abe Lincoln quote I first came across many years ago: I must study the plain, physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right. And…
LiteratureArts & Culture

Review

Review by bookpagedev

You cannot help but wonder if C. S. Lewis might not have been more at home in an earlier age. In his opposition to the relativistic and materialistic philosophy of our modern times, a philosophy that he believed was sapping the magic and the mystery out of literature and life, Lewis knew that he was out of step with modernity. In fact, he once referred to himself as a cultural dinosaur. But 35 years after his death, the influence of this unassuming British scholar shows no sign of abating. His numerous books continue to sell briskly, and he has been the subject of a Broadway play and two feature films, as well as the focus of countless biographies, literary studies, and religious reflections. One could make the argument that he is also the most oft-quoted religious writer of the 20th century, his work appealing across denominational and confessional lines. Lewis is best known as a writer of stylish and memorable books exploring Christian faith and practice (Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters) and the creator of the Chronicles of Narnia (which has achieved classic status in children’s literature). Less well-known are his fiction for adults (the Space Trilogy and the remarkable Till We Have Faces) and his highly readable volumes of literary history and criticism. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Lewis’s birth and has brought forth the expected explosion of secondary works analyzing and celebrating the mind and imagination of this highly creative thinker. None of these compares in usefulness to the newly published The C. S. Lewis Reader’s Encyclopedia. The editors of this hefty volume have sought to summarize the scope of Lewis’s achievement by gathering essays from a wide range of Lewis experts. These short essays, set up in an encyclopedic format, provide an overview of the life, work, and ideas of Lewis, focusing on his literary output: all the books, poems, essays, book reviews, prefaces to the works of others, and even never-before-discussed letters to the editor. In addition, the volume offers a concise, yet penetrating biography of Lewis’s life and entries on his family and friends, as well as his literary and theological forebears. The writing is crisp and interesting, offering insights of value to the serious student of Lewis’s writing, while at the same time being easily accessible to the reader just discovering his work. Although a few essays veer perilously close to hagiography, most show an admirable critical balance, and the comprehensive nature of the whole project is very satisfying. Reading these valuable summaries of Lewis’s work, one is reminded again of his strengths: a vivid imagination, a sparkling wit, clear common-sense thinking, a gift for memorable analogies, and an unshakable faith in the reasonableness of the Christian view of existence. That he could synthesize these in ways that appealed to children as well as academics is probably what has kept this dinosaur from becoming extinct. The manner in which he combines intelligence with a soaring imagination still serves as a challenge to contemporary writers to break free from the usual modes of religious writing and forge creative new ways of communicating timeless ideas.

Terry Glaspey is the author of five books, including Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual Legacy of C. S. Lewis. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.

You cannot help but wonder if C. S. Lewis might not have been more at home in an earlier age. In his opposition to the relativistic and materialistic philosophy of our modern times, a philosophy that he believed was sapping the magic and the mystery…

NonfictionHumor

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Over the past several years, journalist/essayist/satirist P.

J. O’Rourke has tickled our collective funny bone with his views on liberals, Republicans, war, politics (and politicians), automobiles, government, and manners. He has written for a wide array of magazines, ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Republic, from Car and Driver to Vanity Fair. In his latest work, Eat the Rich, O’Rourke takes on the subject of economics, I wanted to know why some parts of the earth prosper and others suck, he says. So, armed with nothing but wads of cash and the goodwill of his publishers, O’Rourke spent a couple of years investigating the vagaries of economies around the world. From Sweden to Albania, Cuba to Tanzania, he crisscrossed the globe, finding fact and humor in more or less equal measure.

For O’Rourke, as with many of his generation, the topic of economics was first raised by his parents, who had grown up during the depression: . . . Booms and busts can have larger consequences, such as in 1929 when stocks were crashing, banks were collapsing, and President Hoover was hoovering around. Pretty soon you could buy the New York Central Railroad for a wooden nickel, except nobody could afford wood. People had to make their own nickels at home out of old socks which had also been boiled, along with the one remaining family shoe, to make last night’s dinner. So the kids had to walk to school with pots and pans on their feet through miles of deep snow because no one had the money for good weather. My generation has heard about this in great detail from our parents, which is why we put them in nursing homes. On his visit to Cuba, O’Rourke writes, Figuring out what the Cuban peso is worth is a complex economic calculation. To put it in layman’s terms, a pretty close approximation is nothing. In Moscow, O’Rourke was able to find free-range chicken and Italian food authentic enough to satisfy the Corleone family, but there were virtually no Russian products in sight. For, as the Russians have discovered a free-market economy (mas o menos), they have also discovered brand names. Easy to sneer at this, opines O’Rourke, But there’s a reason why, when we go to Florida, we don’t drink Ocala Cola. It is perhaps difficult for Americans to grasp, but Russia never had a Renaissance, never had a Reformation . . . Russia never had a Roaring ’20’s, a Booming ’50’s, a Swinging ’60’s, or a Me Generation. There was just one Them Generation after another. In Albania, O’Rourke explores how the entire (meager) holdings of a small country were gambled away in a sophisticated pyramid scheme. In Hong Kong, he wonders at the short-sightedness that would allow the British to give up one of the wealthiest colonies on the planet, Why didn’t the British give some other islands to China? Britain, for instance. This would get the UK back on a capitalist course Beijing being more interested in money-making than Tony Blair. Anyone familiar with O’Rourke’s recent books will be able to make a pretty accurate guess at his views, but he makes a good case for his conclusions, drawing from both his own experiences and the writings of the world’s premier economists. And, as usual, he takes a dry topic and moistens it with a liberal (oops, conservative) dollop of humor.

Over the past several years, journalist/essayist/satirist P.

J. O'Rourke has tickled our collective funny bone with his views on liberals, Republicans, war, politics (and politicians), automobiles, government, and manners. He has written for a wide array of magazines, ranging from Rolling Stone…

NonfictionHumor

Answers to life’s pressing questions

Behind the Book by Garth Sundem

Is the uncertainty of life getting you down? It seems that everywhere we turn, there are questions desperately calling out for answers: Should I bring my laptop on vacation? Should I get a tattoo? Should I call in sick? Author Garth Sundem offers mathematical solutions for everyday dilemmas like these in his wacky new book, Geek Logik: 50 Foolproof Equations for Everyday Life. We asked for Sundem's advice on a question confronting all the Dan Brown-wannabes in the publishing world.

What are the chances my book will be a bestseller?

There it is, finally, sitting on your kitchen table your snazzy new book complete with cover art, blurbs and the better chunk of your last two years' conscious thought. Your mom loves it, your spouse is warily optimistic, and your dog is eyeing it jealously as if to say, I still don't see why this is more important than taking me to the park to eat goose poop. But will it sell? Run the numbers, dear author, to find out:

Pg = How many previous books have you published that have sold at least 20,000 copies?
Pf = How many previous books have you published that have sold below 10,000?
F = Of 100 randomly sampled people, how many would recognize your name?
C = How many titles does your publisher currently have on the USA Today Top 150 Bestseller List?
T = Is your book about any of the following: weight loss, finances, the hijinks of youthful wizards, self actualization, heartwarming family memoirs, barbecuing, ex-CIA heroism, dogs/cats, arcane religious puzzles, geeky math humor? (enter 2 for yes and 1 for no )
G = Honestly, how good/useful is it? (1-10 with 1 being Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About and 10 being Night)
X = How compatible is your astrological sign with the book's release date? (1-10)

Rowling is the percentage chance that you will be able to retire to your personal banana republic, living off royalties and Mai Tais.

Is the uncertainty of life getting you down? It seems that everywhere we turn, there are questions desperately calling out for answers: Should I bring my laptop on vacation? Should I get a tattoo? Should I call in sick? Author Garth Sundem offers mathematical…

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