Posts filed under 'Nonfiction'
Dave Egger’s 1999 memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius chronicled his life while taking care of his younger brother Christopher “Toph” Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents. Eggers has since gone far beyond the personal narrative and into the chaotic world outside himself. In his 2006 book What Is The What (reviewed here by Lisa), Eggers tells the painful true-life account of a Sudanese war refugee who was a member of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He then went on to use the book’s profits to organize a human rights organization named after the book’s main character. Now, in his most recent book, Zeitoun, Eggers tells the story of Hurricane Katrina through the intimate lens of the Zeitoun family who are long time residents. And as with his last book, all proceeds from the book go the Zeitoun Foundation, a human rights organization that aids in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
In Zeitoun, Eggers introduces Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a middle-aged Syrian-American and the owner of a successful painting and contracting firm in New Orleans. His wife and business partner, Kathy, comes from a Southern Baptist family who later coverted to Islam after her first failed marriage. The Zeitouns have four children and live in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. The story starts out two days before the storm arrives when the city is full of mounting tensions and residents are madly fleeing their homes. Kathy decides to leave with the children and go to Baton Rouge and later Phoenix while Zeitoun, as usual, decides to stay in the city to watch over their own home and other properties.
After a relatively standard post-storm Day 1, by Day 2 it is ominously clear to Zeitoun that the city’s levees have failed and the city is completely overrun with water. After saving what he could of his own family’s valuables, Zeitoun then takes to his 16-foot aluminum canoe and paddles around New Orleans witnessing the spectacle and saving elderly and dehydrated residents trapped in rotting, destroyed houses. Filled with an increasing sense of purpose, Zeitoun’s determination to save lives and help those less fortunate becomes more intense as the waters become more polluted and as the violence and chaos of the city deepens.
The book takes a turn when six armed officers show up at one of Zeitoun’s properties and take he and two others into custody for unclear reasons except possibly accused armed robbery. This then proceeds into a harrowing account of the government mistaking Zeitoun for a terrorist and subjecting him to a series of humiliations including full body searches, forced entrapment in a wire cage at makeshift Camp Greyhound, and finally being transferred to a real prison outside of New Orleans. And all the while, he is kept from making a call to his wife.
In telling this true account, Eggers’ style (much like in What Is The What) is amazingly simple and unadorned. There are no political soapboxes or rants whatsoever, just strictly a show-not-tell style of narrative that almost makes the reader believe he was simply transcribing word for word what the Zeitouns told him about their nightmarish experiences post- Hurricane Katrina. The results are poignant and disturbing and unabashedly clear.
November 20th, 2009
Kathleen - Monroe Street
When I first picked up The Art of Making Money I thought, “Great. Probably one of those Suze Orman books and I’ll be chastised for buying another latte.” (According to Suze Buzzkill, my coffee purchases may be impeding my retirement plans). But, reading further, I note the second part of the title–The Story of a Master Counterfeiter. Hmmm. Now they got my attention.
Part memoir, part true crime and written by Jason Kersten, it’s about Art Williams, a maverick counterfeiter from Chicago. The story begins with Art’s childhood in a dysfunctional (natch) family. Art’s father, a small-time crook, abandoned the family when Williams was 11. His mother, diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia, is unable to look after their three kids. The family ends up on welfare in Bridgeport, on Chicago’s south side, amidst guns, drugs and gangs. Williams begins breaking into parking meters and is soon supporting the family by stealing cars. He then graduates to robbing local drug dealers. At this point, the fun has really just begun and Williams is 13 and we’re only on chapter 3.
Art’s mother’s boyfriend (a.k.a. Da Vinci) takes Art under his wing, introducing him to a future in counterfeiting. After Da Vinci disappears (presumably at the hands of a disgruntled client) Art is left to fine tune his talent on his own. He does so, taking his career onto a new level by using the newest technology available, coming up with a c-note, (I like to throw the lingo around) a hundred dollar bill so perfect, even law enforcement have trouble telling it from the real thing.
Art’s inevitable downfall stems from his inability to follow Da Vinci’s simple instructions–first, do not spend the notes yourself, and secondly, never spend them close to home. Art’s final undoing, however, is a result of visiting his father in Alaska. In a moment of weakness and, one can only think, an effort to finally win dear old dad’s approval, Art lets his dad in on the business. Art Senior wants a piece of the free money action but can’t follow the rules either.
If I was casting the movie, which is currently in the works, I’d put Johnny Depp in the lead role and Ray Liotta as the deadbeat dad. While you wait for the film, however, slap down some legal tender, get yourself a big old latte and enjoy this page turner. Sure, it may not expedite your retirement or improve your investment portfolio, but take solace in the fact that the feds aren’t chasing you. And then there’s all that money you’re saving by getting your stuff from the library.
November 13th, 2009
Terry - Central
Jennifer Hull’s Beyond One: Growing a Family and Getting a Life crossed the reference desk the other day and caught my eye. “Hey,” I thought, “I have one child and no life!” Plus, two sweet-looking children were pictured on the cover, snug as bugs in what appear to be crisp, clean sheets. Remember clean sheets?
Hull has been places and done things; she worked as a reporter in Nicaragua, the Middle East, and places in between. Her articles have appeared in an impressive (to little ol’ me, anyway, who’s only been published in MADreads) array of magazines. Once, she was the mother of one daughter and now she’s the mother of two. Right around the time her family expanded, Hull realized that almost all parenting books are written for parents of one, filled with tips and tricks that just might work if the mom didn’t have a wailing baby in her arms and a screaming toddler wrapped around her ankles.
Beyond One isn’t a how-to manual, though Hull refers to many and includes a bibliography (bravo!). It reads more like the anecdotes you might hear from a neighborhood mom at the park or story time, if you were able to negotiate nap times and tantrums, bundle your children up, execute a last-minute diaper change, and actually make it to the park or library. And if your kids would leave you alone long enough to have an adult conversation.
If you’re looking for a book to help you form a family plan, this isn’t it. But if you’re a parent needing to know that growing families are survivable and enjoyable, Beyond One fits the bill.
November 7th, 2009
Robin - Pinney
Well, I’m not 100% sure about that, but I can tell you which books at the Madison Public Library have been checked out the most times over the last 15 years. Our library automation department can run these really cool reports that tell us which books might need to be replaced or removed depending on how many times they have been checked out over the years and I thought y’all might be interested to know which books have circulated the most here in Madison. You might think that the lists include big books like The Kite Runner or Water for Elephants, but you would be wrong.
See for yourself what people are finding at the library:
Fiction
- 1st to Die: A Novel by James Patterson.
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
- The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.
- A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks.
- Keeping Faith: A Novel by Jodi Picoult.
- The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy.
- Paper Money by Ken Follett.
- Her Father’s Daughter by William Coughlin.
- Desire and Duty: A Sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by Ted and Marilyn Bader.
- Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg.
Nonfiction
- The Pokemon Trainer’s Guide.
- The Snoopy Festival by Charles M. Schulz.
- Japanese Style by Susan Slesin.
- The World of LEGO Toys by Harry Wiencek.
- Batman, from the 30s to the 70s by E. Nelson Bridwell.
- Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee.
- Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee.
- Color Style: How to Identify the Colors that are Right for Your Home by Carolyn Warrender.
- The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live by Sarah Susanka.
- A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker.
The books in the top ten spots in the fiction category have gone out an average of 14.5 times per year, and the books in the top ten nonfiction category have gone out an average of 13.64 times per year, which is more than once a month! This is fantastic considering that the loan period is 28 days. 1st to Die gets checked out an average of 17.69 times a year!
I consider myself to be a “big reader” but I’ve only read one book from each list: The Handmaid’s Tale, which was assigned reading for a Women’s Studies class at the UW nearly twenty years ago, and The Snoopy Festival (I love Joe Cool!). Something that I found very interesting about the nonfiction list is that once you get into the top 50, there are a ton of cookbooks. They just never go out of style. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird do show up in the top 100 fiction titles, but so does Forever by Judy Blume, Bridget Jones Diary and almost everything by John Grisham.
Looking at the number of times these books get checked out, we know one thing: Madison likes to read!
October 30th, 2009
Molly - Central
Another attention-grabbing, yet misleading review title, the book is not (entirely) about monkey prostitution, but I did want to see if I could coax yet another comment out of Gerard.
Super Freakonomics : Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance is Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s followup to their hugely successful Freakonomics, which looks at how economics (or perhaps motivation is a better word) influences much of human behavior. This time around, in addition to the concepts mentioned in their subtitle, they also look at things like getting doctors to wash their hands, child car seats, the murder of Kitty Genovese and, yes, monkey prostitution (sort of). Deftly and interestingly told, it examines why people do certain things, avoid other things, and how researchers can (sometimes) figure out the real incentives driving human (and occasionally monkey) behavior.
If you’ve read and enjoyed the first volume, get ready for more of the same. If you’re new to the freakonomics bandwagon, rest assured that the “dismal science” by which some refer to economics can actually be humorous, informative, often fascinating and quite possibly enlightening. At least when written with the skill Levitt and Dubner display. Topped off with an extensive section of notes (including a pretty humorous dig at Levitt at note 49-56) and a good index.
I’ll note up front that prior to publication, there has been some negative reaction to their chapter on global warming, with some writers and bloggers convinced that Levitt and Dubner don’t give the issue (or perhaps the proposed solutions?) the deference it deserves. And it’s true that they seem to have less than fervid adoration for former vice-president Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Academy Award winning filmaker, whose policies are looked at (from an economic perspective) in two different sections of the book. They’ve also discussed some of the criticisms on their chapter on global warming on their blog, prior to the publication of the book. Their blog, by the way, also makes for some fascinating and enjoyable reading.
Don’t let the bit about monkey prostitution (it’s in the epilogue) keep you away! This is, once again, an enjoyable and thought-provoking (and not always flattering) read about — us.
Available soon on compact disc or in large print.
October 29th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Sometimes you really do need to give a book a little more time. The prologue of Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman’s Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado really lost me. I understand that the author was trying to set up her lifelong love of sweets, but this chapter was kinda weird. She remembers back to a Christmas spent in Austria and how the holiday stockings were delivered by a raggedy St. Nikolaus and his demon sidekick, Krampus. I may, in fact, have nightmares about this. I thought I was getting into chocolate chip cookies and some Hollywood style hissy fits. I wasn’t prepared at all for the Krampus.
But continuing on to chapter one I get exactly what I want: a memoir of why a successful Hollywood executive (and sister of famous actress Sandra Bullock) would want to pack it all up and leave for Vermont to open a bakery. We also get some kick ass recipes. I am committing the recipe for Golden Eggs to memory. It is that good. Vanilla cake with a sugar and cinnamon coating that makes it taste like a donut. Mmmmm.
Each chapter is set up with a title and time, the time corresponding to what time of day certain events happen in the life of a baker. Example, 3:00 a.m. wake up. 4:00 a.m. arrival at the bakery and convection oven preheating. 5:00 a.m. tart filling. You get the idea. Each chapter also contains memories, insight and recipes. I love, love, love this. Gesine’s mother is German and a lot of the recipes and memories are inspired by the treats Gesine ate growing up in Germany as well as family traditions carried on after moving to the U.S., which is fascinating stuff. Having grown up eating apfelkuchen myself, this was very enjoyable reading. But I will not lie to you, I almost hung it up after the Krampus chapter. I’m still a little freaked out.
So it’s a good thing I have a new carrot cake recipe to test that calls for nine pounds of butter! Well, not quite, but all of the recipes included in this book have full-fat, real ingredients. Totally worth it! That’s what baking is all about! I was this close to planning a trip to Montpelier, VT, to visit Gesine Confectionary & Gourmet Market, but it looks like they closed up shop and Gesine is preparing to open a new bakery in Austin, TX. I will keep my eye out for that one. And in case you’re wondering, it’s Geh-see-neh.
October 26th, 2009
Molly - Central
This book made me pretty angry.
It’s not that I disagree with Jessica Valenti’s arguments in The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. It just bothers me that women, teenagers, and even younger girls are being manipulated and actively lied to by their parents, teachers and religious leaders. These women and girls are being judged by only one standard: whether or not they have sex. The message they’re being given in no uncertain terms is: if you’re an unmarried female who is (or has been) sexually active, you’re just not as good as a woman who’s still a virgin.
Granted, any young woman who chooses to delay or avoid sex for whatever reason she chooses isn’t really making a wrong choice. But, according to some individuals and groups, young women who make the choice to engage in sex, whether or not they make the choice willingly and deliberately, somehow become lesser human beings. This act becomes the only standard by which their character is measured. Like an inverted form of pornography, women’s worth is being judged only in terms of their sexual status as virgins. And the weapon some of these individuals and groups use against young women who fall from this pedestal is shame. Because the only worthy goal for women is to save this “gift” for marriage, where she’ll give it to her husband. Actually, as Valenti points out, she’s given in marriage by her father, whose role is to safeguard her chastity until almost literal ownership of said chastity is passed to the daughter’s new husband/owner.
Valenti describes purity balls, where girls as young as nine years old are dressed up in formal wear and taken to an event where they pledge to their fathers that they will remain chaste until marriage. And, really, what nine-year-old girl wouldn’t do that, if only because everyone else in the group was doing it? Other attempts at damning the sexually active attempt to equate chastity with being a piece of candy, once some guy has licked it and sucked it, you just can’t put it back in its wrapper. Who would want it? Other reinforcement techniques include group exercises where “used” women are equated with a piece of tape stuck to a boy’s arm. Once that boy rips it off, that piece of tape has picked up dirt and hairs from the boy’s arm, and lost some of it’s stickiness– making that piece of tape (that girl) less likely to be able to bond firmly with another boy. Another group indoctrination technique would equate a sexually active woman or girl as a used tissue, which was thrown on the ground while the group was encouraged to step on it.
Is this really how we want to teach young people to treat their fellow human beings?
Valenti also makes the rather provocative assertion that these images of pure young women usually focus on a specific type of chaste girl: one who is attractive, slender, straight, and white. This seems to me to possibly stem mostly from the socio-economic circumstances of the families that support the political agenda that the purity movement is aligned with rather than any overt racism on the part of the purity movement, but Valenti makes the more confrontational claim that non-white women and girls are viewed as somehow less pure (or viewed as more inherently sexual) in a white-centric cultural view.
And some of this is being funded by your tax dollars under the heading of abstinence only sex education. The hope is that young women will choose to avoid sex out of an idealized valuation of chastity and inflated fears of any kind of sexual activity, rather than giving them the knowledge to make an informed decision to be, or not-be, sexually active.
This volume will probably be useful in rallying the already converted. But I doubt that it will be read by many who don’t already sympathize with feminist views. This is one of those issues which seems to leave no room for debate or nuance. Whatever side you choose, if you’re not in agreement with the side I’m on, you’re just wrong. Which is kind of a shame. I do think it’s a book worth reading. And discussing.
I should point out that the book is pretty extensively foot-noted and has a pretty good-sized index for a relatively slim volume. (Pretty wide spacing of the text on the pages, too, causing me to wonder, in my less-charitable moments, if Valenti had to cheat a little to inflate the page count.) Also included are questions for discussion and a list of additional resources including organizations, web-sites, blogs and books.
Valenti also has a web site feministing.com where you can keep up-to-date with news and views from a variety of feminists.
October 23rd, 2009
Dennis - Central
Readers are perpetually frustrated people. Is there any other pursuit more hopeless than that of the reader, manically consuming novels, nonfiction and any other scraps of writing that comes along, all with the knowledge that every day there are more books published, yet more to read and the despairing sense that one can never get to the bottom of that to-be-read pile. Why do we do it? And where can one find more good book suggestions?
Nick Hornby feels your pain. He’s a busy man: novelist, music critic, dad, sometime movie screenwriter/producer and full-time Arsenal football fan. He can be excused for not reading. Yet he too has succumbed to this madness and even managed to write some pretty good articles for The Believer magazine. And, he too has problems getting through all the books he has bought. He’s one of us!
Hornby stopped writing his article in 2008, but luckily for posterity, his essays are collected in three easily digested volumes: The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping vs The Dirt, and his latest, Shakespeare Wrote for Money. They’re all fairly solid essays - even in the months that Arsenal duty kept Hornby from finishing any books - although the last few essays in Shakespeare suggest a writer who is ready to move on. But still there is plenty here to amuse, recommend and perhaps even enlighten. Hornby lets his books take him to other titles as they will, and his discoveries and rediscoveries (and in the earlier essays, his pans) are something that all readers can relate to. Luxuriating in the world of a Dickens novel? Learning that many young adult novels being published today are not only modern classics but are, as Hornby puts it, written like their authors want them to be read? Readers, do not your toes tingle at the very thought?
All Hornby’s criticism is short enough to be perused during the commercial breaks of your favorite televised sporting event. The books themselves are skinny enough that I’m reasonably certain that even if one were to check out all three, their combined heft would not be enough to topple that tippy to-be-read stack. Good thing too, as that pile is unlikely to get any shorter.
October 19th, 2009
Katie H.
Hey, anybody remember Sex, by Madonna? It came out, er, rather, was published in 1992. Madonna was pretty popular then– lots of music videos on MTV, lots of interest in the press because she was “dating” so many celebrities and professional athletes at the time. And so it’s really no surprise that her book became a New York Times bestseller. Not that the subject matter didn’t help. Which was a bit of a problem for the library, since the book consisted mostly of pictures of Madonna in various stages of dress (mostly undress) and offering her thoughts and opinions on all matters sexual.
Which caused problems for us. We can’t be seen as buying “pornography” because there are quite a few members of our community who would be quite upset about their tax dollars being spent on “fill in the blank, bad for you books”. At the same time, lots of other people from all over our service area, were requesting the book. What to do? Well, the people who were requesting it were “saved” when the South Central Library System, of which we’re a member, funded the purchases, which would be used throughout our service area, rather than taking the money from the Madison library budget. We purchased several (three?) copies, had them rebound (they were originally “bound” in a pretty heavy aluminum cover, with pretty sharp edges, as I recall), and sent them out to start filling holds.
At one time, I believe there were upwards of two hundred people waiting to read a copy of the book. The books spent years in circulation without ever actually having landed on the shelves where people could innocently stumble across it. Not that they could do that now. We made a decision at the time we acquired the books, that they would be permanently shelved in our “storage area.” You can still read it, of course. You just have to work a little harder to get at it.
I confess, I may be misremembering some of the details. It all happened a long time ago. I recall glancing at a few pages of the book when it first arrived but being, frankly, a little embarrassed to be looking at it. A Catholic upbringing will do that to you. And the book didn’t look to be particularly well done–grainy black-and-white pictures, hand-written text, “artistic” layout. We still have it in our system, it’s just not worth the effort to me anymore. But, again, that could be part of that Catholic upbringing.
By the way, if the thought of that Madonna book, or any other books or sound recordings or videos, sitting on the library shelves bothers you, take some comfort from the fact that none of the materials we buy are required reading, or listening, or viewing. Some people were outraged by the very thought of that Madonna book, yet hundreds more wanted to read it. That’s part of what is so great about the library. We give you choices. We use public dollars to buy materials (less expensively than you usually can) and let you borrow them. And we try to choose materials that will ”inform, inspire, enrich, and entertain” — though most of our materials probably won’t do all those things at once.
And they won’t always have that effect on every user. Your mileage will vary. But you’ll probably spend most of your time on those materials that will entertain you, or inspire you, or teach you, or challenge you, or help you do that for your children. And when you’re done with those items, you can bring them back to us, so we can store them until someone else wants to use them. Which is another thing we’re good at. We’ll store your books for you and save you money in the process. Money that you can save or spend locally instead of sending a big chunk of it to a distant publisher or distributor.
Talk about win-win.
And we thank you for your patronage.
October 14th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Thanks to a generous grant from the Madison Community Foundation, the Meadowridge Branch recently acquired a Strong Families collection designed to support family literacy and successful parenting. The collection contains print titles, audio books, and DVDs and covers topics such as nutrition, fitness, behavior, and life skills for children and parents.
The popular Love and Logic series is represented in multiple formats within the collection. The audio book Developing Character in Teens features an engaging live presentation by author and speaker Jim Fay on how parents can help their teens make positive choices and prepare for adulthood.
“It takes a village to raise a child” is the message of All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents by Peter Benson, president of the Search Institute. Benson explores ways that committed people and organizations (such as the local library) are working towards significant and lasting change to better the community.
And though you may have that village, hazards can still be everywhere. To help with that fact, Lawrence Shapiro guides parents in dealing with common troubles (insect bites and splinters) to more serious scenarios (severe burns and broken bones) in The Baby Emergency Handbook: Lifesaving Information Every Parent Needs to Know. Tips for avoiding the problems are offered at the beginning of each section. The inclusion of CPR supplements for infants and children over one makes this title a valuable resource for parents.
These are just a few of the titles included. Please visit Meadowridge and see more of our new Strong Families Collection!
September 30th, 2009
Ryan - Meadowridge
Jeffrey Zaslow is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. One of his columns was about lifelong friendships that seem to exist primarily among women. The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship evolved from the responses he received, including one from the Ames group. The 10 women who were friends in high school (there were 11, but one died) and graduated in 1981 are now scattered throughout the country They have a reunion every year. Zaslow was invited to attend, and uses this time to update us on their current and past live. They have had tragedies, challenges and successes.
It is hard to describe exactly why this was a disappointing read. The 10 “girls”, now in their forties, seem personable enough and are very successful in their adult lives. And author Jeffrey Zalow (co-author of The Last Lecture), has a lot of facts about them, their childhoods in Ames and their lives since graduation. Perhaps the fact that Zaslow has all the details of their lives might be part of the problem. He is good at reporting but not as good at conveying feeling and emotions. Also for the most part these are ordinary middle class lives, and even though they are often eventful and rewarding, they are not that interesting to read about. A more general book about women’s friendships and how rewarding long term, life-long friendships can be would have been more interesting. Anyone else have a different response to the book?
September 26th, 2009
Mary K. - Central
South Madison’s book discussion group for Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food had a small attendance on Saturday, but the discussion covered a variety of topics: from the economics of modern day farming to how our own parents and grandparents cooked, preserved and gardened, compared to how we do now. An interesting observation from a younger member of the group was how her friends who are going back to farms and farming today see it more as a radical political statement vs. just a lifestyle/livelihood choice.
Visit the Go Big Read program site for a complete listing of upcoming book groups and events.
September 24th, 2009
Lori - South Madison
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