Wright Thompson reckons with the culture of the Mississippi Delta and the murder of Emmett Till in his brilliant, probing history, The Barn.

American History, History, Nonfiction

Wright Thompson’s ‘The Barn’ chronicles the fight to preserve the memory of Emmett Till

Fourteen-year-old Till was murdered in a nondescript barn in the Mississippi Delta. But few know the barn still stands today, or fully understand its history. Thompson believes we should.

Memoir, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Memoir

Connie

With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.

All Nonfiction Coverage

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Vermeer’s Hat

by Anne Bartlett

Timothy Brook, a professor of Chinese studies at Oxford, teases out the global interconnections revealed by humble objects depicted in the works of Johannes Vermeer.

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

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

Christian soldiers

by bookpagedev

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

Getting all the answers

Review by bookpagedev

by Sarah White

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

Margaret Mead, meet Harry Reid

by Thane Tierney

Lifestyles

Lifestyles

Hot summer knits

Review by bookpagedev

by Sarah White

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

Saving a culture through books

by bookpagedev

Biography

Biography

Portrait of the artist

Review by bookpagedev

by Michael Sims

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

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

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

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

Beautiful beads

by bookpagedev

History

History

Words that inspired a generation

Review by bookpagedev

by Anne Bartlett

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

Transformed tees

by bookpagedev

Memoir

Memoir

Trains in his veins

Review by bookpagedev

by Howard Shirley

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

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

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

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

After Afghanistan, a year in Iraq

by bookpagedev

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How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Maria Ressa

By Sarojini Seupersad

Maria Ressa’s book is a political history of the Philippines and an intimate memoir, but it’s also a warning to democracies everywhere: Authoritarianism is a threat to us all.