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The Work of Art

The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.
The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.
NonfictionBiography

Ingenious

Richard Munson’s splendid biography of Benjamin Franklin provides an insightful view of the statesman’s lesser known accomplishments in science.
Richard Munson’s splendid biography of Benjamin Franklin provides an insightful view of the statesman’s lesser known accomplishments in science.
NonfictionLiteratureBiography

Didion and Babitz

Lili Anolik’s Didion and Babitz is a freewheeling and engaging narrative about two iconic literary rivals and their world in 1970s Los Angeles.
Lili Anolik’s Didion and Babitz is a freewheeling and engaging narrative about two iconic literary rivals and their world in 1970s Los Angeles.
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Biography

She had what it took

Review by bookpagedev

Long before crossover and eclectic became part of the journalistic vernacular, Dinah Washington defied categorization and embraced any and every type of song. Her delivery was instantly identifiable, and she prided herself on crystal-clear diction, precise pitch and spontaneity. Washington made brilliant recordings, beginning with her days as a pianist accompanying gospel pioneer Sallie Martin, through swing and R&andB sessions with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, on to modern jazz ventures with Clifford Brown, Max Roach and Cannonball Adderley and later pop hits with Brook Benton.

Author Nadine Cohodas, whose previous book on Chess Records marvelously outlined that historic company, now gives the same exacting treatment to Washington in Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington. Cohodas also selected the songs on a companion CD, released on Verve Records.

Queen is the first truly comprehensive volume on the late singer. Cohodas conducted numerous interviews with insiders and family members and discovered documents and letters that reaffirm her assessments. Cohodas ably illuminates the quirks and contradictions of Washington’s personality. Washington could be extremely kind and appallingly crude. She complained about her inability to find happiness in relationships, yet married seven times. A smart, extremely knowledgeable artist who had definite ideas about her music, Washington frequently clashed with bandmates, despite often being accompanied by the greatest jazz musicians on earth. Thankfully, Cohodas also presents Washington’s upbeat, joyous and celebratory side, thus not totally resigning her to tragic victim status.

Sadly, Washington’s ongoing conflicts and struggles with lovers, relatives and executives in many ways prevented her from achieving the fame she deserved, along with the fact that black female singers had extremely limited options during the ’50s and early ’60s. But Washington influenced numerous vocalists who followed her, most notably Esther Phillips and Nancy Wilson, while creating an exceptional body of work that’s still captivating almost 41 years after her death at 39. Songs like Unforgettable, This Bitter Earth, What a Diff’rence a Day Makes and Baby You Got What It Takes remain as documents of her excellence. Queen is a wonderful and invaluable addition to music biography and cultural history. Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and several other publications.

Long before crossover and eclectic became part of the journalistic vernacular, Dinah Washington defied categorization and embraced any and every type of song. Her delivery was instantly identifiable, and she prided herself on crystal-clear diction, precise pitch and spontaneity. Washington made brilliant recordings, beginning with…
ParentingFamily & Relationships

Tips for supermom and superdad

Review by Katherine Wyrick

Not your Run-of-the-mill parent
Run DMC is humming a different tune these days. The rapper turned preacher and father, once famous for singing "Walk This Way," now preaches the parenting gospel, or, as we like to think of it "Parent this way." Rev Run and wife Justine Simmons, the stars of MTV's hit reality show "Run's House," share their advice for raising grounded kids in Take Back Your Family. They know a thing or two about this subject considering that they have six. Sure, there is the obligatory fancy crib that all celebrity-reality-TV families have (as in "Hogan Knows Best" or "The Osbournes"), complete with pool, tricked-out cars and electronics galore. But Rev and Justine have made it their top priority to bring their kids up with the right values and without a sense of entitlement. Rev issues a challenge to American parents with his title, and then shows you how to do it.

Solid as a rock
Rose Rock, mother of actor/comedian Chris, must have a lot of energy. She certainly has a lot of sound advice, having raised 10 kids in addition to 17 foster children. In Mama Rock's Rules, Rose discusses boundaries, discipline and how to keep it real in today's crazy culture. Helpful throughout are sections labeled "Mama's Mojo," in which Rock distills bits of wisdom into easily digestible bites. This supermom doesn't mince words, but she does suggest mincing an onion for her "Rock Style Beans and Franks" (the recipe is included along with a few other Rock family favorites). Maybe the secret to a happy childhood isn't fried chicken and biscuits, but, let's face it, comfort food helps. Both Rock and Rev Run stress an attitude of gratitude and a strong spiritual foundation. We shouted a big amen to the chapter "Reading Is Righteous." That applies to Mama Rock's book, too.

Blog baby
There's a trend afoot, or underfoot depending on your perspective, and it is this: the blogosphere and the world of publishing are beginning to overlap. Mom bloggers, and there are a lot of them, who've birthed and raised their little blogs, are now seeing them grow up into books. One of these blog babies is Jen Singer's You're a Good Mom (and your kids aren't so bad either): 14 Secrets to Finding Happiness Between Super Mom and Slacker Mom. Tips like "Don't answer the phone when the class mom calls" and "Your kid's birthday party isn't your coming-out celebration" are right on target. In the section "Wedding Vows You Wish Your Husband Had Made" we find this: "I will never pretend that I can't hear the kids at night. I'll even start to get out of bed long before you sigh angrily and throw the blankets off." This guide is for both the perfectionist mom, laminated flash cards at the ready, and the mom who genuinely believes that Pop-Tarts are a healthy breakfast choice.

The good fight
Letters to a Bullied Girl, subtitled "Messages of Healing and Hope: One Bullied Girl, Two Sisters Who Cared, and Thousands More Who Opened up Their Hearts," is both a heart-wrenching and heartwarming story. Today's bully isn't just the punk who steals your lunch money on the playground; the contemporary bully is a lot scarier, and armed with technology. Olivia Gardner, a young girl from Northern California, was relentlessly harassed by classmates, online and otherwise, for more than two years. Her story became a sort of rallying cry for anti-bullying advocates nationwide. What's uplifting about this story is what happened next – two sisters, Emily and Sarah Buder, began to write to the traumatized Olivia in an effort to help her. Though sometimes painful to read, this collection is for teachers and parents who have been touched by what has become an epidemic in schools across the country.

The food fight
If you can relate to the following insight from food writer and mother of two Betsy Block, you just might have a picky eater yourself: "I'd always thought food was pretty straightforward: you're hungry, you eat; you're not, you don't. Then I became a mother." Block's book The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World provides humor and hints for the mother who's feeling disheartened about her family's eating habits. Block tries to fight the good fight when it comes to healthy eating, and to do that she has to get creative, and we don't just mean cutting sandwiches into enticing shapes. But it's an uphill battle with a son who thinks candy is a food group and a daughter whose dietary repertoire consists only of white bread. Block's tone is casual and her writing accessible. With The Dinner Diaries, she's dished up a funny, candid portrait of a family trying to eat, and live, more consciously.

Father knows best
Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children by Tom Sturges reads like an informal letter to fellow parents, just one dad sharing a "lot" of advice with another. Sturges lost his father, filmmaker Preston Sturges, when he was a child, and writing this book was a way for him to heal old wounds as well as share his own experience of being a father. Rule #1 is, no surprise, The Parking Lot Rule: whenever you are in a parking lot – or any dangerous place – yell out "Parking lot rules" indicating your child should come immediately to your side. (Wouldn't "Heel!" be shorter?) This directive encapsulates Sturges' overall message, namely that remaining closely connected to your kids is of the utmost importance.

Sex sells, and kids pay the price
On a recent trip to Target I picked up what I thought was a pair of plain shorts for my six-year-old daughter (the only ones I could find that weren't obscenely short) only to discover the word "Rockstar" written in glitter across the bottom. No, thank you. I prefer clothes that are all cotton, preferably organic and made of 100-percent non-tacky material. Am I the only parent who doesn't want her daughter to look like a Poison groupie? Then why all the Bratz dolls, age-inappropriate outfits and disturbing TV images? Barbie is starting to look wholesome by comparison.

Thankfully, there is So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids. This is the must-read parenting book of the bunch. In it, the authors explore how sexuality in mass media affects our children. They also offer strategies for counteracting the negative messages our kids are receiving – and not just girls. One of the many laudable things about So Sexy is that it explains how boys are targeted, too. Written by two internationally recognized experts in early childhood development and the impact of the media on children and teens, Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., So Sexy So Soon is an invaluable and practical guide for parents who are alarmed by the media's assault on girls and boys. The authors understand that we can't escape our commercial culture, but, they argue, we can be agents of change. Here they provide strategies for a counterattack, like encouraging more imaginative play and setting limits on TV and other media when your children are at one another's houses.

The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It, by M. Gigi Durham, cites pop culture – and advertising in particular – as the cause of multiple societal ills. She offers helpful strategies for empowering girls to make healthy decisions about their own sexuality.

Not your Run-of-the-mill parent
Run DMC is humming a different tune these days. The rapper turned preacher and father, once famous for singing "Walk This Way," now preaches the parenting gospel, or, as we like to think of it "Parent this way." Rev Run and…

Biography

A fascinating portrait of a 19th-century notable

Review by bookpagedev

Through his sermons, public addresses and writings, Henry Ward Beecher was an immensely influential and often revered public intellectual in 19th-century America. He is probably best remembered as the brother of Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe and as the son of Lyman Beecher, the last great Puritan minister in America. From Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, Henry had a profound effect on American Christian thought when he broke away from his father’s strict Rule of Law and God’s wrath teachings and emphasized instead God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.

As for public policy, perhaps the best example of the extent of his influence was an opinion shared by Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. Both men believed that five speeches Beecher gave in England and Scotland in 1863 kept the Confederacy from gaining diplomatic recognition in England and France at a time when material help from those countries could have made a crucial difference in the outcome of the war.

In her exhaustively researched and endlessly fascinating The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, Debby Applegate brings the charismatic Beecher and his times vividly to life. She skillfully weaves the intense personal life of her subject with the dynamic religious, social and political history of the period, and shows how Beecher, with his amiable personality and oratorical and writing talents, was able to gain a large audience for his views. He was concerned with the general reform of society, including universal suffrage and opposition to slavery. Beecher, Applegate writes, was considered a great, if erratic, intellect, whose talents were eagerly sought out in the fiercely competitive newspaper business.

Beecher’s friends and acquaintances included Ralph Waldo Emerson, who once described him as one of the four most powerful men in the virtuous class in this country, and Mark Twain, who took Beecher’s counsel on publishing and made a small fortune when his Innocents Abroad, or, the New Pilgrims became a bestseller.

However, the career of this prominent preacher, lecturer and writer suffered a serious setback when charges of adultery were brought against him in a trial widely covered by the press. Applegate masterfully guides us through the six months of testimony, eight days of debate and 52 jury ballots, after which the jury could not reach a verdict. Beecher was able to recover somewhat from this ordeal, but many still watched [his] public pronouncements for clues to his guilt or innocence, according to Applegate. This is a major biography of an important, if seriously flawed, figure who made significant contributions to public and religious life in his time. Roger Bishop is a Nashville bookseller and a frequent contributor to BookPage.

Through his sermons, public addresses and writings, Henry Ward Beecher was an immensely influential and often revered public intellectual in 19th-century America. He is probably best remembered as the brother of Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe and as the son of Lyman Beecher,…
Biography

White Heat

Review by Roger Bishop

Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson corresponded for almost 25 years, yet met in person only twice. Beginning with a letter from the reclusive poet in 1862 to a literary figure she knew only through his essays and social activism, and lasting till her death in 1886, it is arguably one of the most important relationships in American literary history. In that initial letter, which included four of her poems, Dickinson famously asked, “Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?” Their connection, as described by Brenda Wineapple in her luminous new book, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, was “based on an absence, geographic distance, and the written word.” After their first meeting at her home, in 1870, Higginson wrote that Dickinson “drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her.” But he recognized her unique talent and wished to help her if he could. Though he admitted after Dickinson’s death that he could not teach her anything, Wineapple shows how Higginson’s encouragement and support were meaningful for both of them.

Wineapple, the acclaimed biographer of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and Janet Flanner, makes a very persuasive case that Higginson, whose place in the poet’s life and work has often been downplayed, did indeed perform a singularly significant role. In their letters, she writes, “they invented themselves and each other, performing for each other in the words that filled, maintained, and created the space between them.” They shared a passion for the natural world and literature; Wineapple demonstrates how through the years Dickinson dipped into Higginson’s work and rewrote it for her own poetic purposes.

She trusted and liked him and, as far as is known, there was no one else except her sister-in-law to whom she gave more of her poems. Only a few of Dickinson’s poems were published during her lifetime. Higginson played a central role in the posthumous publication of her work, collaborating with Mabel Loomis Todd in selecting and editing the first two volumes of poems. He found a publisher and wrote an introduction for the first volume. Higginson has often been criticized for changing the poems – eliminating Dickinson’s dashes at certain points and substituting more “appropriate” words – but this charge is probably not fair. Mrs. Todd, who copied many of the poems, admitted that it was she who made most of the changes.

White Heat succeeds magnificently in shining a light into the work of two unlikely friends. Dickinson did not live as isolated a life as we might imagine, while Higginson was indeed a radical activist, a supporter of John Brown, a strong advocate for women’s rights, and the leader of the first federally authorized regiment of freed slaves during the Civil War. But his compassion and literary sensibility were also at the heart of what he was about.

This book is not, Wineapple writes, conventional literary criticism or biography. She lets Dickinson’s poetry speak largely for itself, as Higginson first read it. The result gives us a powerful insight into two extraordinary figures who were there, in a rather unusual way, for each other.

Roger Bishop is a retired Nashville bookseller and a regular contributor to BookPage.

An acclaimed biographer makes a persuasive case that editor Thomas Higginson performed a singularly significant role for poet Emily Dickinson.
NonfictionTrue Crime

Guilty till proven innocent

Review by bookpagedev

On July 25, 1984, nine-year-old Dawn Venice Hamilton was raped and murdered in a wood near Baltimore. It was Kirk Bloodsworth’s great misfortune to have been in the area and to have borne a faint resemblance to the composite sketch of the suspect. To make things worse, Bloodsworth, while having no criminal record, was something of a drifter and an admitted dope user. The brutality of the crime and the public outcry to find the killer made the police cut corners in gathering evidence against Bloodsworth and encouraged the state of Maryland to be overzealous in prosecuting him. On March 8, 1985, a jury took only two-and-a-half hours to convict him. Two weeks later, a judge sentenced him to death.

Tim Junkin’s Bloodsworth is subtitled The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA, but the DNA factor is of limited significance here. Far more important is the book’s exposure of how unfair the judicial system is for anyone who can’t afford the best lawyers. The system didn’t set out to get Bloodsworth, of course, but once it had him in its sights as a credible suspect, that was all it needed.

Even after his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, Bloodsworth wrote letters virtually every day to anyone who might help him. And he kept his lawyers apprised of advances in DNA testing and insisted they put it to use in his defense. Finally, after nine years behind bars, Bloodsworth walked free. Ten years later, police found the real killer. Or did they? Although the title gives away the story’s outcome, Junkin deftly infuses drama into every police lineup, courtroom maneuver and prison showdown. While he is moved by Bloodsworth’s courage and tenacity, he unsparingly depicts the character flaws that helped make him an easy target. This is a cautionary tale for everyone involved in seeing justice done. Edward Morris reviews from Nashville.

On July 25, 1984, nine-year-old Dawn Venice Hamilton was raped and murdered in a wood near Baltimore. It was Kirk Bloodsworth's great misfortune to have been in the area and to have borne a faint resemblance to the composite sketch of the suspect. To make…
History

When the Astors Owned New York

Review by bookpagedev

Let’s say you like a good gossipy book as much as the next person, but you have a certain reputation to uphold and can’t be seen on the beach with the latest celebrity tell-all. Then you must read When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, a fascinating social history as well as a fun gossipy read. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Justin Kaplan (Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain) knows his history. In this book, he looks at the post-Civil War period through a study of the Astors and their lavish hotels. Once simply a place for the stranded passenger to stay the night, hotels became destinations all their own. With their restaurants, tea rooms and open lobbies, they became a place where the public could gather, and they defined what luxury meant to the growing middle class. Furthermore, they were architectural and technical wonders, their plumbing and electrical capacities usually exceeding those in the homes of all but their wealthiest guests.

The real fun of When the Astors Owned New York, however, is its stories of the Astor world. Cousins William Waldorf Astor and John Jacob Astor IV did not like each other. Their joint venture, the famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel, was in fact two hotels: A contract specified that corridors connecting the two buildings could be sealed off if the fragile truce, uncomfortable for both parties, failed to hold. It seems that every famous person had some connection with the Astors or one of their hotels and John Jacob Astor IV became irretrievably tied to our country’s history when he went down with the Titanic. Kaplan has an eye for both the dishy details and the deeper meaning beneath them. This vision makes When the Astors Owned New York the best kind of history: entertaining. Faye Jones is on the faculty of Nashville State Community College.

Let's say you like a good gossipy book as much as the next person, but you have a certain reputation to uphold and can't be seen on the beach with the latest celebrity tell-all. Then you must read When the Astors Owned New York: Blue…

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