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Wild things

Review by Deanna Larson

Animal Life is the ultimate armchair expedition for wildlife enthusiasts. Compiled in association with the American Museum of Natural History and captured by some of the world's best wildlife photographers, this coffee – table safari is full of action – packed close encounters with some of the world's most exotic and familiar species. Broken into three massive sections – the Animal Kingdom, Animal Anatomy and Animal Behavior – the book uses the most distinctive or spectacular examples to illustrate every aspect of life in the wild, from birth and development, sexual rivalry and raising young, play and learning, and society and intelligence to predation, scavenging, hunting, camouflage and deception. Unforgettable pictures include a brown trout leaping out of a stream, mouth gaping, to eat a damselfly, a flock of oxpeckers sucking blood from the back and ears of an African buffalo, giraffe in combat and a short account of how the Marsh Warbler learns its song. But nature can be harsh as well, graphically illustrated by a mother cheetah bringing back small or injured prey for her babies to practice the kill, and a grey heron stepping on the head of a flock mate before dining on its flesh.

For the birds

A mouse-devouring predator with an injured wing makes a strange but fascinating soul mate in Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl. When Caltech biologist Stacey O'Brien is asked to adopt a four – day – old barn owlet by her research department, she is wary of raising an unreleasable wild animal in her living space. But the chance to observe bird behavior outside the lab intrigues the ethologist. "After all, theoretical scientists do not require a lab," she writes, "only a piece of paper, a pencil, and a fantastic brain." Quickly, O'Brien is killing the many live mice the bird needs to grow into a striking 18 – inch predator that flutters into her heart, her researcher's brain and every corner of her life. Wesley imprints on the scientist as he sleeps next to her in a box on a pillow, and matures to swoop with his talons and pounce on prey (O'Brien lifts one tiny foot to find a smashed spider). He fills her bathroom cupboards with strips of old magazines, calling her to them with a nesting cry. O'Brien has this remarkable feathered creature as her companion for nearly 20 years, through illness and other challenges, bonding girl and bird in a true love story that crossed species and confounded expectations. "He was my teacher," she writes, "my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God."

Any bird lover who has refilled a feeder on a cold December morning, or gone out to the backyard to try to find the owl hooting at midnight and wondered, who else is as crazy as me, will find good company in The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. Prize – winning writer/ornithologist Tim Birkhead turns the long and disjointed history of birds into an accessible, engaging look at the beauty, songs, behavior and balletic ability of this ancient species. Inspired by the work of 17th – century British biologist John Ray, Birkhead takes a fresh look at bird behavior and ecology with entertaining stories based on the observations and discoveries of scientists, biologists and bird lovers throughout history. Footnotes, a glossary, index and bibliography will appeal to the amateur ornithologist, but the tales and illustrations will thrill any birdwatcher curious about those who gather the information they use to learn about the lives of their feathered friends.

Counting sheep

Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds is a shepherd's Playboy, filled with gorgeous specimens swathed in every type of wool coat, perched on delicate, downy legs. Farm veterinarian and professor Kathryn Dun, who descends from a family of Scottish sheep breeders (she helped deliver Dolly, the cloned sheep), presents rams and ewes from the ancient herding cultures of the world, evolved to match the landscape: cotton – cloud Oxford Down soft as the Cotswold hills, the long lustrous ringlets of the English Wensleydale, the shaggy black Hebridean of rugged Scotland, with its ribbed horns. The origin and distribution of each breed, as well as its distinguishing features and uses, is included. While sections on sheep history and the show scene in the British Isles would most likely interest only sheep breeders, herding dog fanciers and agrarians, the photos of sheep posing against a canvas backdrop by Paul Farnham are like stunning Dutch still lifes, with the sheep's glassy stare reminding viewers of the time when hardy, healthy livestock were the lifeblood of any village or community.

Pet projects

Happy Dog, Happy You: Quick Tips for Building a Bond with Your Furry Friend and Happy Cat, Happy You: Quick Tips for Building a Bond with Your Feline Friend feature an adorable retro design packed with genius shortcuts to bring out the "doggone best" and "feline finest" in a pet relationship. Arden Moore (The Dog Behavior Answer Book, The Cat Behavior Answer Book) concentrates on simple essentials for a quality life with tips on raising, training, housing and feeding a dog or cat, along with healthful recipes. Happy Dog also includes excellent tips on canine sports and exercising and traveling with a dog; Happy Cat tackles multi – cat households as well as cat – proofing a house and caring for feline senior citizens.

Grandma always said homemade is better, and that goes for pets as well. Jessica and Eric Talley, founders of Bubba Rose Biscuit Company, have created delicious recipes that a canine bubbe can make or bake in The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook. This gorgeous compact hardback features 100 illustrated recipes for organic treats and entrees including Teenie Weenie Banana Barkinis, "Asnackadopoulis" (feta cheese, oats and spinach), Honey Mutts (honey and oat biscuits), Energy Barks, Muddy Paws (carob treats), and Pupeyes (spinach biscuits). Some low – fat and meat – , grain – and gluten – free recipes are included along with helpful sidebars on super foods for dogs and nutritional no – no's. While the book's super – simple recipes repeat many of the same ingredients, your pooch will never tire of these wholesome foods.

Read it for the LOLs

Does "I Can Has Cheezburger?" sound like the Queen's English to you? O hai, welcum LOLcat fan! Visitors to the website icanhascheezburger.com add funny "capshuns" to snapshots of cats in a wacky feline pidgin language. The site has become a worldwide sensation and social networking hub with millions of visitors, and LOLspeak now extends to wedding vows and even a Bible translation. I Can Has Cheezburger? A LOLcat Colleckshun collects 200 classic pairings from the site – Do Not Want and Oh Noes! are here – plus gigglesome new "kittehs." These constructs land squarely in the category of "you had to be there," but picture this: a ginger cat hides in an empty aquarium, and says: K … i redy. u may add fishies nao. If such LOLcat mischief strikes you as hilarious, this is a colleckshun you won't want to miss.

Animal Life is the ultimate armchair expedition for wildlife enthusiasts. Compiled in association with the American Museum of Natural History and captured by some of the world's best wildlife photographers, this coffee – table safari is full of action – packed close encounters with some of the world's most exotic and familiar species. Broken into […]
LiteratureArts & Culture

The Magician’s Book

Review by Trisha Ping

Romances with books can be just as rocky as the human variety. Critic Laura Miller, who writes about literature for publications like Salon and the New York Times, discovered that the hard way. She fell in love with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia as a child—and then felt betrayed and duped when, as a teen, she realized that the stories she adored could be read as Christian allegories. Still, when asked to write about a book that changed her life, she returned to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—and, to her surprise, discovered that she could still get lost in Lewis’ world.

In The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia, Miller delves into Lewis’ biography, the tradition of children’s literature, the power of myth and the history of fairy tales. She also talks to fellow Narnia fans, from personal friends to well-known writers like Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke and Jonathan Franzen. The thoughtful, incisive essays explore every aspect of these novels, which, in Miller’s words, “are far larger than they seem from the outside.”

“I can’t read the Chronicles the way I once did, with the same absolute belief,” writes Miller, yet in The Magician’s Book, she vividly portrays that feeling of enchantment. More than a literary critique or an exercise in nostalgia, these essays are a tribute to the power and depth of story and imagination, and to the pure joy of reading. Though the grown critic realizes how the magician does his tricks, something of the childhood magic remains.

Romances with books can be just as rocky as the human variety. Critic Laura Miller, who writes about literature for publications like Salon and the New York Times, discovered that the hard way. She fell in love with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia as a child—and then felt betrayed and duped when, as a teen, she realized […]
NonfictionFictionLiteratureEssaysClassicsArts & Culture

Classic books never go out of style

Review by Lacey Galbraith

Classics re-imagined

Translator Burton Raffel gives new life to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The epic poem has long been celebrated for its satiric wit and humor; together on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, 30 strangers pass the time by telling two stories apiece.

Raffel is a celebrated scholar whose previous translation of Beowulf has sold more than a million copies. Retaining the joy and irreverent fun of the original, he brings the Canterbury Tales' 14th-century Middle English to the 21st century. While many versions of the poem have existed, this edition is, in the truest sense, unabridged and complete; for the first time, stories such as "Melibe" and "The Parson's Tale" are translated in their entirety. The Canterbury Tales has entertained readers for centuries, and this handsome and beautifully done edition is the perfect gift for someone looking to add the best of the classics to their bookshelves.

Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha by Jack Kerouac is a classic of a different sort. Written in 1955, it's a history of the life of the Buddha, and until now, it has never been released in book form. Raised a Catholic, Kerouac was drawn to the Indian Mahayana Buddhist tradition, a school "sweeter" and less rigorous than Zen Buddhism. Kerouac's novels Mexico City Blues, Tristessa, Visions of Gerard and, most notably, The Dharma Bums, are heavily influenced by Buddhist teaching; Wake Up is the prelude text, the book Kerouac wrote first, the one to influence everything after.

It was while sitting in a California public library that Kerouac initially came across a book of Buddhist and Taoist translations. Reading texts such as the Diamond Sutra and the Lankavatara Scriptures, he was transfixed and changed by the words before him. As Robert Thurman remarks in his introduction to Wake Up, "mercy and compassion were the facets of the wisdom of enlightenment that most spoke to Kerouac's Christo – Buddhist heart."

Classic collections

Though known for his novels 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell was also a prolific essayist and literary critic. All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays and Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays are two new collections – published in tandem – that showcase Orwell's sometimes overlooked talents as a nonfiction writer. Compiled by New Yorker staff writer George Packer, the pieces are "the work Orwell started doing to pay the bills while he wrote fiction," he says, And yet, Packer writes, Orwell's "reviews, sketches, polemics, columns … turned out to be the purest expression of his originality."Born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in India, where his father was a British civil servant, Orwell served with the Imperial Police in Burma and fought on the side of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. In Facing Unpleasant Facts he tells of tramps ("The Spike"), mad elephants ("Shooting an Elephant") and the cruelties of childhood ("Such, Such Were the Joys"). In All Art Is Propaganda, he takes on the culture at large, reviewing Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator and T.S. Eliot's poetry, and providing incisive commentary in pieces such as "Politics and the English Language," "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" and "Reflections on Gandhi."The work assembled in these two collections proves the breadth of Orwell's talent. As Packer states in his introduction, "Orwell shows, again and for the last time, that a great work of art can emerge from the simple act of seeing oneself and the world clearly, honestly, and without fear."

A contemporary of Orwell's, Graham Greene wrote a stream of classic novels, including The Power and the Glory, The End of the Affair and The Quiet American, before his death in 1991. Graham Greene: A Life in Letters is an exhaustive collection of the author's correspondence. Edited by Richard Greene (no relation), it marks the first time such a volume has been put together. Greene once estimated that in the course of a year, he wrote at least 2,000 letters. He corresponded with brothers and sisters, wives and girlfriends, children and grand – children. There are letters here to fans, business associates and literary figures of the day such as Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, V.S. Pritchett and Elizabeth Bowen. Many have only recently been discovered; for years they were hidden, stashed inside the hollow of a book. Comprehensive in scope, the letters are an insightful look at one man's varied – and very well lived – life.

Classic variety

Turn to any page in Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literature's Most Intriguing Dedications by Marlene Wagman – Geller and there will be a story of romance, passion, drama or inspiration. With an international roster of authors, and a list of titles running from the contemporary to the canonical, Once Again to Zelda (the title is taken from the dedication of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby) is a delight. Inspiration for the book came by way of Grace Metalious' Peyton Place. When Wagman – Geller read the dedication, "To George, for all of the reasons he knows so well," she had to learn the story behind the story. One juicy detail led to another, and now Wagman – Geller is what she calls a "Dedication Detective."In Once Again to Zelda, she reveals how Ayn Rand's husband shares his Atlas Shrugged dedication with his wife's lover, and explains the moving tale behind John le Carre

1001 Books for Every Mood by Hallie Ephron, Ph.D., is the one guide sure to help a reader navigate the aisles of any bookstore or library. The daughter and sister of screenwriters, Ephron writes detective novels and reviews books for the Boston Globe, and the titles she's chosen are an eclectic mix. There isn't a table of contents but rather a "Table of Moods" with such options as books "to Laugh and Cry at the Same Time," books "to March into Battle," and books "to Bend Your Mind." There's even a category for those readers in the mood "to Join the Circus."In addition to determining a book's status as fictional or true, literary or a page – turner, Ephron includes such important factors as whether a book is brainy, family – friendly, movie – related or, yes, a good read for the bathroom. Ephron provides quick plot summaries for each entry, and with 1,001 options from which to choose, the chances are high of finding the perfect book for that perfect someone.

Classics re-imagined Translator Burton Raffel gives new life to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The epic poem has long been celebrated for its satiric wit and humor; together on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, 30 strangers pass the time by telling two stories apiece. Raffel is a celebrated scholar whose previous translation of Beowulf has sold […]
PhotographyFilmArts & Culture

Names in lights

Review by Pat H. Broeske

Leading men tell all

There are similarities to the careers and lives of Robert Wagner and Tony Curtis. Both were contract players who went on to 1950s – era stardom and a cool '60s ride. Each reaped the rewards of fame by paling with starry names – and enjoying women galore. After wedding famous actresses, both were in "storybook" marriages breathlessly covered by fan magazines.

That's where the similarities end, as detailed in Wagner's Pieces of My Heart, written with Scott Eyman. This holiday tell-all delivers the goods. Wagner grew up privileged, just off the Bel – Air Country Club golf course, where he caddied for the likes of Clark Gable and Fred Astaire. Just 22 when he began a four – year affair with the much older Barbara Stanwyck (she was 45) he later famously married and divorced and remarried Natalie Wood. Her 1981 death in the waters off Catalina Island continues to haunt him. Yet Wagner, who went on to find fame as a TV stalwart and is now married to Jill St. John, knows he's had an amazing ride.

A star is born

Tony Curtis enjoyed all the amenities a life in the Hollywood spotlight can bring – but you wouldn't know it to read his story, told in American Prince: A Memoir, written with Peter Golenbock. But then, the former Bernie Schwartz had a hardscrabble New York childhood: he's always been quick to use his fists. Curtis came to Hollywood by way of acting school, following a Navy stint. His pretty boy looks were his calling card-and date bait. Opening with a tryst with young Marilyn Monroe, his book does considerable bed – hopping. It was an affair with a 17 -year-old leading lady that put an end to his marriage to popular actress Janet Leigh. (Curtis says Leigh's treatment of him had left him "emotionally vulnerable.") The ugly split may have turned some of Hollywood's powerful figures against Curtis. Or so he believes. He had a string of marriages and saw his career spiral downward, despite starring in bona fide classics, including Some Like It Hot and Sweet Smell of Success.

He left Hollywood when the phone stopped ringing. Now living in Las Vegas, he's been happily married for 10 years (wife Jill has a horse ranch). For the record, he's not on the greatest terms with daughter Jamie Lee Curtis. But he's working on it.

Inside a curious mind

Alfred Hitchcock didn't go for happy endings, but he sure liked blondes. But what was behind the master of suspense's obsession with actresses including Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Kim Novak, Doris Day, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren? In Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, Donald Spoto offers a compelling psychological examination. As the author of two other Hitchcock tomes, Spoto has the credentials and sources to explore how Hitchcock's psyche impacted his films and their casting. Self – loathing and friendless with unresolved issues toward women, Hitchcock could be a cruel taskmaster. What he did to Hedren (mother of actress Melanie Griffith) during the making of The Birds and especially Marnie, was nothing short of sexual harassment – even physical abuse. (Class act that she is, Hedren eventually made her peace with Hitchcock.) The plot of Vertigo (in which James Stewart "remakes" Kim Novak into his dream woman) played to his habit of making actresses "to his dream ideal of blonde perfection." Of course, those blondes often wound up in nightmarish situations in Hitchcock's iconic films.

The Hollywood lifestyle

In the world of show business, some of the hottest properties aren't on the screen but, rather, in the rarefied worlds of Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Holmby Hills. Leading Beverly Hills real estate broker Jeffrey Hyland knows that terrain better than anyone, as revealed in the massive, lushly illustrated The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills. This amazingly researched and illustrated history of nearly 50 incredible estates, from the ground up (as they were built), includes a who's who of notables involved, as well as an authoritative look at the convergence of architectural styles (and audacity) that are as integral to Southern California as palm trees – and it comes in a carrying case with attached handle. For looky – loos, this may be the ultimate home tour.

A studio revealed

If you saw and enjoyed PBS's five-hour documentary about Warner Bros. Studios that aired in September, you only skimmed the surface. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story by Richard Schickel and George Perry, gives the complete saga, with a wealth of images from the archives of the 85 – year – old studio. Founded by four brothers, Warner Bros. famously popularized sound with 1927's The Jazz Singer. Its first big star was Rin Tin Tin. The studio also claimed the esteemed John Barrymore (grandfather of Drew Barrymore). But its key performers were as gritty as the movies that became the studio signatures. James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart were among those who made their mark here. Moving decade by decade (the '70s were as exciting as the '30s), the book takes us right up to The Dark Knight and Sweeney Todd, and charts the evolution of modern legends, including Clint Eastwood, who penned the foreword.

Eastwood's own metamorphosis is captured in Clint Eastwood: A Life in Pictures. Edited by Pierre – Henri Verlhac, with a foreword by Peter Bogdanovich, it follows his journey from hubba – hubba beefcake model to his status as a revered filmmaker – actor, accepting accolades and statuettes at Cannes and the Oscars. Now there's a Hollywood ending.

Beyond the best

The B-List: The National Society of Film Critics on the Low-Budget Beauties, Genre – Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love is edited by David Sterritt and John Anderson. The National Society of Film Critics is known for highbrow taste (in 2002 they turned out The A-List: 100 Essential Films). But in this entry, the members fess up about the guilty pleasures on their DVD shelves. A chapter on "Provocation and Perversity" goes bonkers for Nic Cage's loony tunes performance in Vampire's Kiss. Another on "Dark and Disturbing Dreams" salutes The Rage: Carrie 2. Here and there, a title's inclusion gives pause; Platoon a B-movie? But the bulk of the lineup reminds us why it's OK to love movies that have never made a "10 best" list.

Some of the B-titles are included in David Thomson's "Have You Seen… ?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films. It's a welcome companion to his authoritative Biographical Dictionary of Film. Arranged alphabetically, titles from 1895 to 2007 are examined on varying levels (audacious themes, forgotten performances, the tenor of the day, etc.). The erudite Thomson isn't without a sense of humor. Of Liz Taylor in Cleopatra, he notes, "Her eyelashes needed cranes!"

Leading men tell all There are similarities to the careers and lives of Robert Wagner and Tony Curtis. Both were contract players who went on to 1950s – era stardom and a cool '60s ride. Each reaped the rewards of fame by paling with starry names – and enjoying women galore. After wedding famous actresses, […]
Sports

Outta the ballpark

Review by bookpagedev

Philip J. Lowry is an engineer and also a college professor who teaches Arabic language and Middle East politics. But Lowry’s special passion is baseball in particular, baseball stadiums. Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks is an update of Lowry’s incredibly useful reference on baseball stadiums throughout the U.S., specifically those used in the major leagues and pro-level Negro Leagues during the past 140 years. Coverage is from Akron to Zanesville, from the long-defunct or demolished to the newly constructed. For each of the 405 stadiums, Lowry provides specific location, playing-field dimensions, crowd capacity (even as it changed through the years) and all manner of trivia about the stadium’s structural quirks and the teams that played there. Black-and-white archival photos of these venerable venues stud the text, and some of them are just good enough to evoke misty-eyed memories in the nostalgic baseball fan. An excellent index speeds access.

Philip J. Lowry is an engineer and also a college professor who teaches Arabic language and Middle East politics. But Lowry’s special passion is baseball in particular, baseball stadiums. Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks is an update of Lowry’s incredibly useful reference on baseball stadiums throughout the U.S., […]
NonfictionLiteratureLifestylesArts & Culture

The perfect holiday reads

Review by MiChelle Jones

October 1843 was the worst of times for Charles Dickens, Les Standiford explains in The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits. Despite early successes and a secure place in the literary canon, at 31, Dickens found his career, finances and marriage at low points. And yet, he rallied to write one of the most enduring tales of all time in just six weeks. Showing how the Carol (as Dickens referred to the novella) developed in Dickens' mind—inspired by a lifelong love of Christmas, a belief in social responsibility and a hope of quick financial rewar—is just one of the accomplishments of Standiford's entertaining book. He also covers the publishing and copyright industry of the mid-1800s, the history of the Christmas holiday and provides a view of life in England during the Victorian Age. Standiford includes a succinct paraphrasing of A Christmas Carol as well as a rundown of some of the thousands of adaptations and parodies of the work.

As an antidote to the more saccharine expressions of holiday cheer, turn to John Grossman's fourth holiday book, Christmas Curiosities: Odd, Dark, and Forgotten Christmas. Culled from the author's collection of antique postcards and advertisements, this parade of evil spirits, surly Santas and bad children also has a (slightly) softer side, showing the evolution of the old elf from European figure to all-American icon.

Christmastime in the city
Whether you use A Very New York Christmas as a planner for Christmases future or memory book of Christmases past, this little book makes a delightful Christmas present. Featuring the beautiful artwork found on Michael Storrings' NYC-themed holiday ornaments, the book takes readers on a colorful watercolor tour of Manhattan and the other boroughs, starting with the Macy's parade. Snowflakes—Swarovski at Saks and Baccarat at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue—follow, along with St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Plaza, the Guggenheim, scenes of Central Park and a giant menorah. Then it's on to the American Museum of Natural History's Origami Tree and the tricked out Dyker Heights neighborhood before returning to Times Square for New Year's Eve. A map at book's end (rendered in watercolor, of course) shows the location of all the pictured sites.

Visions of gingerbread

If decorating a tree isn't enough of a challenge, try the confectionary wonders in Susan Matheson and Lauren Chattman's witty The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes. For each of the architectural styles, architect Matheson and former pastry chef Chattman include ingredients, step – by – step instructions, a dollop of history and suggestions for even more elaborate decoration. Even those of us who lack patience or coordination may be tempted to try the structures, which include an urban brownstone, an art deco gem, a Corbusier – esque "modern" house, a Victorian farmhouse and a Cape Cod.

Simpler gingerbread creations are described in Yvonne Jeffery's The Everything Family Christmas Book, along with a Spirit of Christmas Present-worthy bounty of holiday-themed games, lists of Christmas movies and TV shows, party ideas, decorating tips, etc. This is a great resource for new families or households, someone hosting the family Christmas for the first time or otherwise seeking to establish new traditions. Among the treats Jeffery includes: suggestions for reducing holiday stress and dealing with guests; the top gifts of various decades and how much they cost; and how the holiday is observed around the world.

Holidays on nice

Have a box of tissues handy when you sit down with Ed Butchart's More Pages from the Red Suit Diaries; David Sedaris, he ain't. Butchart was the official Santa at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park for 18 years and in this follow-up to 2003's Red Suit Diaries, he shares more heartwarming stories of his adventures as a real-bearded Santa. In vignettes familiar to viewers of made-for-TV holiday movies (and a couple reminiscent of Miracle on 34th Street), Butchart astounds little kids with his insider knowledge, puts parents at ease and delights in seeing second-generation visitors. He also makes a few miracles happen through the ministry he founded with his late wife, Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC).

October 1843 was the worst of times for Charles Dickens, Les Standiford explains in The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits. Despite early successes and a secure place in the literary canon, at 31, Dickens found his career, finances and marriage at low […]

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