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Visitors to Bookviews know that I love reading history. A splendid look at How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy has been written by Bevin Alexander ($25.95, Crown Forum). I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who wants to understood why America is today the world’s superpower both economically and militarily. Alexander is the author of eight books of military history and has written a book that enables the reader to grasp the many good decisions made from America’s earliest years that permitted it to emerge the greatest living democracy. Along the way many bad decisions were made, not the least of which was the institution of slavery, but always America found a way to overcome its errors and build upon its belief in freedom, from the individual to the national level. For those who have doubts about the present and the future, this book will offer much solace and a full measure of confidence.
There’s another book that reflects the nation’s history since World War II that is simply a gem. While I have devoted a section below to biographies and memoirs, it is the rare memoir that is so fascinating, so informative, and written with such a light hand that one is both eager and reluctant to finish it. Such is In the Shadows of History: 50 Years Behind the Scenes of Cold War Diplomacy by Chester L. Cooper ($28.00, Prometheus Books). I must confess that the title did not immediately grab my attention, but I had essentially come of age during the long Cold War with the Soviet Union. Only after I was drafted into the army did I begin to pay attention to world events. While I and everyone else was spared nuclear Armageddon after the Cuban Missile Crisis passed, Chet Cooper was serving his nation unnoticed and unknown for many years. At first, Cooper was serving in the OSS in China and after the war he would rise through the ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency, serving in England during the Suez crisis and returning to liaison with the White House as the Vietnam War escalated until he could no longer abide President Johnson’s escalation and left. He served in the State Department as well. He then was affiliated with various think tanks for many years. This is a poor, too brief précis of his life story that does not pay sufficient tribute to the way he takes the reader behind the scenes as he deals with prime ministers, premiers, and presidents as he quietly and effectively served his nation. Cooper was a witness to and participant in the great events of the last half-century. This book is a gem for anyone interested in those turbulent years. There has been a spate of books of late about the Middle East and, in particular, Iran. Previously I have recommended Curt Weldon’s "Countdown to Terror" and Kenneth Timmerman’s "Countdown to Crisis" that detailed and documented Iran’s twenty-year effort to make its own nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. This month, Tehran Rising: Iran’s Challenge to the United States by Ilan Berman ($24.95, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) provides a shorter, but comprehensive analysis of the same problem. It also offers some comfort in the form of foreign policy recommendations and observations that suggest that the ambitions and intentions of the ayatollahs might yet be contained and thwarted. Berman is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, a Washington-based think tank, and highly regarded for his knowledge of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation. He is an adjunct profession of international law and global security at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, and this book reflects his broad knowledge and grasp of the dynamics of Iran’s push to be the central of power in the Middle East. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global by Fawaz A. Gerges ($17.85, Cambridge University Press is a scholarly look at the origins of the way the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam metastasized into the belief that any Muslim who did not subscribe to jihad had no right to live. It was and is directed against leaders of Muslim nations and, beyond them, to the whole of the West, with America as its primary target. This is not easy reading, but it does reveal the mixture of theology and pathology that fuels the murderous jihad loose in the world. I have a great fondness for reference books and The Penguin Companion to Classical Music ($25.00, Penguin Books softcover) by Paul Griffiths certainly qualifies as a huge achievement because one can flip through its pages and find information about virtually all aspects of this topic from Claudio Abbado, an Italian conductor, to Frank Zappa, a popular musician who was greatly influenced by the classics. Here you will find biographies of thousands of composers, plot summaries of operas and ballets, clear definitions of technical terms and jargon, and much, much more. Another reference book that arrived recently is The Big Book of Rules by Stephanie Spadaccini ($16.00, Plume softcover) that, not surprisingly, is filled with the rules for board games, kid’s games, card games, and other divertissements from backgammon to tiddlywinks, including the latest craze, poker. For those people who want to know and cite the rules, this book will prove invaluable. Growing Up Too Fast by Sylvia Rimm, PhD, ($21.95, Rodale) should be must reading for any parent whose child is about to enter a middle school. What is revealed is the way childhood has been stolen from children as young as 8 years old. The problems they confront include more than just the usual peer pressure, but sex and drugs, at far too early an age. The introduction of technologies even their parents didn’t possess such as instant messaging and cell phones has transformed their lives. Parents may find that they are blind to the real world of the middle school and the problems their children are facing. Based on an extensive survey of more than 5,400 middle school children and more than 300 focus groups, this book reveals a very ugly world, compounded by the greater world’s issues of terrorism and other violence. This is an important book that I fear will be ignored by the mainstream press. Last month marked the publication of the 2006 Old Farmer’s Almanac, published since 1792! This one like those before it is jammed with interesting tidbits of information in addition to its monthly charts predicting weather conditions based on astronomy and lots of other stuff. There’s a great weather watcher’s 2006 Calendar featuring wonderful photos ($7.99), plus others. To get your copy, go over to www.almanac.com. For bargain hunting book lovers, there’s a new website. Visit www.booksprice.com to save a few dollars on books with this free service. I love history and biographies, autobiographies and memoirs are a great way to reach back in time to learn about the forces that shaped it. Anybody remember the "robber barons" who built great industrial and financial empires? You can learn about one of the most famous, Jay Gould, by reading Dark Genius of Wall Street by Edward J. Renehan, Jr. ($30.00, Basic Books). Though reviled for more than a century as one of Wall Street’s great villains, Gould, contends the author, was one of its most original, creative geniuses. Though widely hated, he was an astute financial and business strategist in his era, often going head to head with the US Treasury, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and others as the undisputed master of the nation’s railroads and telegraph systems. His plan to corner the gold market in 1869 is what he is best known for, but there was much more to the man and this book makes for great reading.
The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King is the true story of an extraordinary love triangle that endured for 28 years and ultimately changed the face of France ($16.00, Touchstone softcover, a division of Simon & Schuster.) Written by HRH Princess Michael of Kent, this book is a first class piece of history as experienced through the lives of Henry II, his wife Catherine de’Medici, and his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Though 18 years younger than Diane, Henri would love her throughout his life. He was married off to Catherine at the age of 14 in a bartered royal marriage common to that period. The French court did not much like Catherine who gained the name "La Serpente" as she hated both Henri and Diane. All the great titans of that age, one of constant wars and great pageantry, can be found in this book. The author, who spent ten years researching the past, is a descendent of both Catherine and Diane. As a young princess, the author took to wearing nothing but black and white, not knowing they were the colors of Henry and Diane. Her mother told her, "It’s time I told you about Diane de Poitiers." It’s a good thing she did because now we have this wonderful book. One of the great names of modern literature is Jorge Luis Borges, the subject of Edwin Williamson’s biography, Borges, A Life ($18.00, Penguin Books, softcover). For most of his life, this winner of the International Publisher’s Prize in 1961 worked in relative obscurity, living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, far from the leading centers of literary culture. He is widely regarded as having had a major influence on 20th century Latin American literature and later on a generation of writers in America, Great Britain, France and Italy. Another writer, Sybille Bedford, has written her memoirs, Quicksands, ($24.95, Counterpoint) telling of her personal journey from World War I Berlin to the bohemian life of the Cote d’Azur in the 1920s, to post-World War II in London, New York, Paris, and Rome. She was a passionate writer who produced eight books, among which was an acclaimed biography of her mentor, Aldous Huxley. She lives in London and her life is filled with the most amazing insights to the history she lived. Fans of author Tony Hillerman will enjoy the audiobook edition of his memoir, Seldom Disappointed ($29.95, Harper Audio), a ten CD collection read by Hillerman as he looks back are more than seven decades spent getting from being a farm boy to bestselling author. The way coincidences shaped his life is fascinating. Left off the hospital ship bringing wounded back from WWII, he encountered a curing ceremony being held by two Navajo Marines, thereby influencing his writing career that now sees his books published in 16 languages around the world. Hillerman is the past president of the Mystery Writers of America, winner of many awards, and lives with his wife in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Son of the Rough South is subtitled "an uncivil memoir" by Karl Fleming ($26.95, Public Affairs). A legendary civil rights reporter, Fleming began life in the poverty-stricken tobacco farming area of Eastern North Carolina. Raised from age 8 to 17 in a tough, all-white Methodist orphanage, Fleming learned to survive bullying and to brawl with the best of the boys. He learned how to plow behind a mule. Isolated from the world around him, he discovered racism and sex during his first job on a newspaper in the small town of Wilson. He would rise to become Newsweek’s chief civil rights reporter, covering the turbulent 60s throughout the South. He was an eyewitness to history. This memoir is a vivid reminder of the passions that surrounded the Civil Rights movement. Another writer, Joyce Johnson, has written a memoir, Missing Men ($15.00, Penguin Books, softcover) telling of growing up in the 1950s. The winner of the coveted National Book Critics Circle Award (I am one of the founding members of the NBBC), Johnson’s memoir tells her mother’s story as well as her own and the far-reaching reverberations of growing up without a father. Along the way, she married two fatherless artists. Her book is a meditation on her relationships and it is happily told without the bitterness and settling of scores that many memoirs offer. Roland Perry has written the biography of Michael Straight, the only American in Britain’s famed Cambridge spy ring that included spies for the Soviet Union such as Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and Donald McClean. Last of the Cold War Spies ($27.50, Da Capo Press) is the story of the most damaging espionage network of that era. Straight was born into a wealthy New England family, attended Cambridge in the 1930s, and fell in with fellow students who are now legend. For the next several decades he led a secret life while working at the US State Department, passing intelligence reports along to a Russian agent, and later running his family’s magazine, The New Republic. He helped fun several communist front organizations, and served US presidents that included John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon while continuing to betray his nation. In 1963 he confessed his activities to the FBI, saying his covert activity had ceased in 1942. The author of this book, however, has uncovered much more about this man, the last of the Cold War spies. Communism is the topic of The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwon and Pierre Rigoulet ($15.95, Basic Books). It is chilling testimony to the utter evil of the dictatorship that exists in North Korea by a survivor of one of its many concentration camps. He escaped to South Korea via China to give testimony to the hardships and atrocities of the regime identified as one of the "Axis of Evil." This is a remarkable memoir and one that deserves to be widely read by anyone who doubts we live in a very dangerous world. Mary Quin tells another escape story in Kidnapped in Yemen ($23.95, Lyons Press). An avid tourist, the author details how things went very wrong when a tourist group she was with was taken hostage by revolutionaries of the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. She literally had to rip an AK-47 from the hands of a wounded kidnapper to make her escape when Yemeni troops came upon them. This is a harrowing firsthand account of her survival. Muammer Kaylan has written both a memoir and a history of Turkey. A resident now of Naples, Florida, he has had a long career as a journalist, including positions as editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily Hurriyet and as a reporter for Reuters News Agency in Turkey. In The Kemalists: Islamic Revival and the Fate of Secular Turkey ($28.00, Prometheus Books) he tells the story of Turkey’s journey from being part of the Ottoman Empire to emerging as a secular state, free of Islamic law and tradition, under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s. Turkey made an astonishing transition to modernity in a scant ten years, abandoning Arabic for Latin writing, empowering women with the vote while freeing both men and women from traditional Arab dress codes and fashions. Political parties emerged and Turks asserted the power of representative government. His memoir is also a warning against the rise of fundamental Islam and its threat to the modern state of Turkey. He remains cautiously optimistic. For anyone with ancestral roots in Turkey or an interest in this nation, this book will prove both educational and entertaining.
Fans of Joe Nameth, the quarterback of the New York Jets, will enjoy Mark Krigel’s biography of this football legend, Nameth ($15.00, Penguin Books). He dominated the sports pages in the 1960s and 70s, and in the process, literally refashioned the idea of the athlete in popular culture. This is not, however, a sports book, but rather a serious biography of a man who became famous through sports, revealing a gifted, complex, and conflicted man. This is a book about fame. Actor Alan Alda has certainly enjoyed his well-earned fame. He’s written Never Have Your Dog Stuffed and Other Things I’ve Learned ($24.95, Random House) a kind of memoir made up of vignettes from his life and career, all of which are quite entertaining. If you’re in a mood to know this actor-writer better and not seeking the key to all wisdom, this book will provide lots of interesting insights he’s picked up throughout his life. Much of this book, as you might imagine, reflects the world of acting. And there’s more good news because this book is available from Random House Audio ($25.00) read by the author. Confessions of a Video Vixen is another book about fame and it is now available in an audio edition. It is the memoir of Karrine Steffens ($29.95, Harper Audio, 6 CDs, unabridged) written and read by the author who was once a sought-after dancer in music videos by hip hop artists such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly, and LL Cool J. A top-paid performer, life behind the scenes was far from glamorous and she tells of physical abuse, rape and drugs, all experienced before she was 26. This is a cautionary tale for any young woman who dreams of the fast life. Finally, if you just can’t get enough of John Lennon of Beatle’s fame, there’s Larry Kane’s Lennon Revealed ($29.95, Running Press with interview on DVD). Lennon is being steadily elevated well above just a talented musician into some kind of icon. He probably would have dismissed that status. The author knew the man and draws on the recollections of many others who did as well and he has written an interesting biography. Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, thus sharing the same birth date with me, if not the same year. December 8th will mark the 25th anniversary of his death. For those who have served in the military, enjoy military history and current affairs, there are a number of books that address what is happening in Iraq these days. Basrah, Baghdad, and Beyond: The US Marines Corps in the Second Iraq War by Co. Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMC [Ret.] tells how the Marine Expeditionary Force planned and prepared for war in 2002, deployed to theater in early 2003, and fought its way to Baghdad and beyond (U.S. Naval Institute Press). This is the real thing, telling what happened based on interviews with those who participated in a way you will never hear the story on television or in the daily newspapers. Also from this publisher, there’s On Point: The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom by Col. Gregory Fontenot, US Army [Ret.] with a foreword by Gen. Tommy R. Franks, does the same for the history of our military operation in Iraq from the point of view of the U.S. Army. This book is filled with maps and photos. It represents an authoritative account from logistical operations to the street level gunfights, putting the Army’s role in the context of the joint operations, as well as individual soldiers. Over There: From the Bronx to Baghdad by Alan Feurer is a memoir ($24.00, Counterpoint, an imprint of Perseus Books Group) offers an entertaining and personalized experience by a writer with a good eye for detail, noting that you are just as likely to get into argument over double-parking whether you are in Baghdad or New York City. This is the war zone as experienced by a reporter for The New York Times who was sent to the Middle East to cover the invasion of Iraq. A Hundred & One Days: A Baghdad Journal by Asne Seierstad ($22.95, Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books Group) tells of her experience as a reporter for Scandinavian, German and Dutch media from January through April 2003. Her interest was in the way the war affected ordinary Iraqis who went from the silence of oppression under Saddam to the freedom to complain about the loss of power, water, and security following the invasion when their lives changed overnight.
For an entertaining step back in history, Seize the Fire is now a HarperCollins audiobook ($29.95) written and read by Adam Nicolson about the great Battle of Trafalgar fought between the British and the Franco-Spanish fleets in October 1805. It’s six hours of five CDs that retells the heroism of Admiral Nelson and the men he led. The battle was for the control of a global commercial empire and confirmed Britain as a major world power. An interesting account of those who commit war crimes can be found in They Would Never Hurt a Fly: War Criminals on Trial in The Hague by Slavenka Drakulic ($15.00, Penguin Books softcover). It is a searing examination of and reflection on the prisoners being prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The author seeks to understand the people behind the horrific crimes of the war that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Thousands of women and men were tortured and murdered in the name of ethnic cleansing. This is a close look at Slobodan Milosevic and others on trial. One wonders, though, why these trials continue to drag on? A number of books reflect Black history and current affairs. The long period of slavery, of course, impacted the lives of those who lived it and those who fought against it. One of the earliest books on the topic was Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years as a Slave, and Four Years on the White House ($14.00, Penguin softcover), recently republished with an introduction and notes by William L. Andrews. When published in 1868, it was attacked as an "indecent book" written by an extraordinary woman who bought her freedom in North Carolina and went north where she set up a successful dressmaking business in Washington, DC. In one of those curiosities of history, she became a friend and confidante of Mary Lincoln, giving her a front row seat on events in the White House. The result is a window to a period in American history seen through the eyes of someone who lived it. More history is found in The Autobiography of Medger Evers ($26.00, Basic Books) as told through the writings, letters, and speeches of one of the seminal people in the Civil Rights period of the 1950s and 1960s. Evers was the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi and was assassinated in 1963 by white supremacists. This collection of his works is the story of a remarkably brave man who mobilized the first stirrings of change in a state that resisted the end of segregation. It may now seem to have occurred long ago, but it was within the lifetime of many Americans today. The book is the work of his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams and Dr. Manning Marable, a professor of public affairs at Columbia University and it makes an important contribution to remembering that turbulent period.
Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture by Kevin Phinny ($29.95, Watson-Guptill Publicans) chronicles the history of race relations in American through the prism of popular music. Far from being a dry, historical review, Phinny infuses his book with the lives of those who contributed to what we now just accept as American music, with its particular contribution of jazz, the blues, and more recently, hip-hop. Dozens of celebrity interviews flesh out the story, though the book reaches all the way back to 1619 and moves forward to the present. It is a wonderful look at the way blacks and white created our unique music together, unwittingly and unwillingly at times. In that regard, it is a story of both races and of racism that cut both ways. In our celebrity culture, Wendy Williams, the star of her own nationally syndicated show, has been a top-rated radio personality for nearly a decade. Now in a softcover edition, you can read all about it in The Wendy Williams Experience ($13.95, New American Library) in her own words. Williams has interviewed the biggest stars, Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, and Queen Latifah, to name just three. In this autobiography, she takes the readers behind the scenes. If you like to keep up with "the dish" on today’s top stars and scandals, you will surely enjoy this book. Kid Stuff: Books for Younger Readers New technologies have created wonderful ways to help youngsters learn their ABCs and how to write them on a page. Learn to Print the Alphabet ($19.95, Incredible Kid, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 461, Hollywood, CA 90028) is just terrific! Idea for children age 4 through 7, it uses a 90-minute DVD that’s compatible with any television, computer or other device that plays DVDs, combined with a dry-erase book it that will have kids picking up the pen that comes with it (plus an eraser brush), excited to learn how to form letters while having loads of fun doing it. The DVD uses puppet-like characters and all sorts of settings to entice the child to learn how to write each letter by providing clear visual and verbal descriptions of the shapes involved. This learning device has already received three awards, but the most rewarding aspect of it will be watching your child learn to write.
A new edition to a successful series is The Teacher Who Would Not Retire Goes to Camp ($17.00, Blue Marlin Publications, West Bay Shore, NY). Written by Sheila and Letty Sustrin, and illustrated by Thomas H. Bone III, Mrs. Belle, who loves to teach and be around children, gives up a summer of rest and reading to help out at a camp, insisting for some reason on wearing ballet shoes. Various adventures follow. Girls in particular will enjoy this story for those about 8 to 10 years old. This publisher has a number of entertaining children’s books that you can check out by visiting www.bluemarlinpubs.com. Dance is the theme of a beautifully told and beautifully illustrated story of real life dancer and choreographer, Jose Limon. Written by Susanna Reich and illustrated by Raul Colon, Jose! Born to Dance ($16.95, Simon & Schuster) tells of Limon’s childhood and his artistic journey to become one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed dancers and choreographers. He ultimately founded the Limon Dance Company and remained at the top of his profession until his death in 1972. For anyone with a youngster, age 5 to 8, who dreams of being a dancer someday, this is the perfect book. It is also a good story in that it demonstrates that anyone can come to America and make his dreams come true. A new adventure has been added to the Rip Squeak series, published by the Rip Squeak Press of San Luis Obispo, California. The first book was titled "The Adventure", written by Susan Yost-Filgate and illustrated by Leonard Filgate. In addition to its delightful story, it and the new book, The Treasure, are distinguished by absolutely extraordinary illustrations of a quality that rank with the best children’s books ($14.99). The main character is a mouse, accompanied by friends that include a cat (none-mouse eating variety) and a talented frog who, this time around, dresses up like a pirate to lead this hardy crew on a quest for a treasure at the nearby pond. This book is a treasure in itself for those to whom it can be read and those who have reading skills, starting around age 7 and up. Young readers 8 to 11 will enjoy one of the latest in a series from American Girl that teaches a bit of history. Meet Felicity and Very Funny, Elizabeth ($6.95 each) tell the story of Felicity, growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia during the American Revolution. They explore the colonial-era heroine’s close relationship with her Patriot family and her friendship with Elizabeth, an English girl from a prominent Loyalist family. This series has even been turned into a television move soon to be aired on Tuesday, November 29, on the WB Network. For the younger reader 12 and up, there’s a fantasy tale, Birdwing ($16.99m Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic Inc) by Rafe Martin. It spins the story of a girl who rescued her six brothers from a sorceress who had turned them into swans. All are returned to human form, but one retains a single wing in the place of an arm. When his father, a king, decides to sever the wing, he must flee from him, as well as the sorceress who hunts him still. The theme of course is finding one’s true identity, but the story makes the journey a very interesting one. Harper Audio is out with a number of its titles on CDs. Among them is Dale Brown's Dreamland: Satan’s Tail ($14.95, 5 CDs) involving a high-tech device that can transform future warfare being built in the Nevada desert at a military facility called Dreamland. It’s a lot of action with the message that there are wars with Islamic fanatics the US and the world cannot afford to lose. Among the best writers spinning out tales of suspense is J.A. Jance and her novel, Long Time Gone, ($29.95, 5 CDs) featuring Jonas Piedmont Beaumont, a homicide investigator, learns of a 50-year-old murder that beckons to be solved. Mad Girls in Love read by the author, Michael Lee West ($29.95, 5 CDs) evokes the South, the ladies of Crystal Falls, Tennessee, and their men. This will prove a lot of fun for any other ladies who want to listen in on their lives. Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips ($39.95, 9 CDs) is about the matchmaking business and how Annabelle Granger needs to land Chicago’s most eligible bachelor as her client to really make it take off. He is looking for the perfect wife, but why did he pick a red-haired screw-up like Annabelle to help find her? This one is plenty of fun.
When you consider how hard it is to write just one novel, it is amazing to receive six of them by the same author. And one of the six took him 19 years to finish! Jack Eadon has bypassed all the arrogance and delay that is too often endemic to the mainstream publishing community. His own publishing house is Eloquence Press, headquartered in Tustin, California. You can visit it at www.eloquencepress.com to learn about his many interesting, well-written novels. His personal favorite is A Consequence of Greed, the one that took so long to complete; a novel of revenge. The sequel to it is Latent Image, a story of love, loss and recovery. There’s also a story about growing up in the 60s, Got To Make It that evokes the "beat" poets of that era, as well as its prime players like the Beatles and Elvis. Others include Lacey’s Day, an intense cross-cultural Internet love story that puts two very different people together. Clearly Eadon is a born storyteller. If you enjoy a good novel, you will enjoy any one of those he’s penned. I was among those to welcome Alaric Jaxartes’ first novel, "Rush Week", but imagine my surprise to find a quote of mine on the back cover of his newest work, Tattered Flags? ($18.95, Pageturners Publishing Company, PO Box 6, Jacksonville, FL 33234-0006) And this book isn’t due for official publication until February 1, 2006. Well, I can’t wait that long to recommend it and its story of a Boy Scout troop that wants to help in a volunteer clean-up operation. When the Governor announces news of this, a whirlwind of animosity is unleashed against them. Here’s a group of kids who have pledged to be morally upright and all the other splendid virtues that BSA represents who must confront the idiocy of people who would love to undermine those excellent standards of behavior. I don’t want to give away too much of this delightful story, but I will let you know it does have a happy ending. www.pageturnerspublishing.com is the place to go to let them know you want a copy to put aside for you. That’s it for October! Don’t forget to visit our Featured Books section for a look at some unique, interesting books on different topics. And don’t forget to let your friends know about Bookviews.com, the Internet’s most eclectic site for news of the best in new fiction and non-fiction. |
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Contact: Alan Caruba |
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An excellent companion is The Pocket Book of Patriotism by Jonathan Foreman ($10.00, Sterling Publishing) which is not some flag-waving tribute, but a book that provides a remarkable time-line of American and world history, taking it from the beginning of civilization through to today. It provides, side by side, a look at the major events that shaped the world and our nation. There is, in addition, brief, useful information about our Presidents, the States, and significant documents. This is just a first rate reference book that should be in everyone’s library. Likewise, Presidential Leadership ($15.00, Free Press, softcover), which rates and ranks the best and the worst of those men who served in the White House makes for some wonderful reading. It is a collection essays by leading scholars in history, law and political science, edited by James Taranto and Leonard Leo. These candid essays examine both the successes and failures. 
When it comes to economics, one man’s groundbreaking ideas shaped political and economic discussions throughout the first half of the last century. John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman ($35.00, Penguin Books softcover) by Robert Skidelsky tells his story. This is a revised and updated edition of his award-winning three-volume biography a Keynes who first gained fame for his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. His views became known simply as Keynesian and he would bequeath to the world the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction, both designed to strengthen the foundations of a free economy in which the market ruled, not some government bureaucrats. In short, he believed in the power of capitalism to create and spread wealth. It is doubtful that many people know of his great contributions to modern thinking, but you can learn about them and the man behind them in this interesting biography.
Pieces of Pie by Pie Dumas ($15.95, Skye’s the Limit Publications, PO Box 279, Scottsville, VA, 24590 softcover) is testimony to the fact that a woman can overcome some of the most horrendous experiences, starting with an incestuous father, years of child labor, life in an often-brutal underworld and, slowly, against all odds, growing up, growing wiser, and emerging with help from that past as a whole person, a stronger person. When I first saw this book, I put it in a stack of novels I planned to review. I thought it was fiction! It took a call from the author to inform me that it was, in fact, a personal memoir of a life that seems more like a Hollywood movie than something a girl from a home that outwardly spoke of good, Midwestern, middle class values could have lived. From learning to drive on hairpin, icy Bavarian roads to being stranded in the Sahara, this is an extraordinary life and an equally extraordinary survival. I recommend it highly. To learn more, visit our 
Warriors and Scholars: A Modern War Reader by Peter B. Lane and Ronald E. Marcello ($24.95, The University of North Texas Press) offers the viewpoints of senior, eminent military historians alongside veteran accounts to provide an invaluable insight to the new way our military fought past wars from WWII to the present day. Anyone with an interest in military history will enjoy this look at the changing face of warfare. From this same publisher comes With the Possum and the Eagle, a memoir of a navigator’s war over Germany and Japan, by Ralph H. Nutter ($29.95). This will surely please anyone who enjoys reading WWII history. Nutter was the lead navigator for Eighth Air Force raids over Germany, assigned as Maj. Gen. Curtis "the Eagle" LeMay’s navigator. Serving in both theatres of war, he was transferred to B-29 Superfortress duty with the Twentieth Air Force in the Pacific. He saw firsthand the creation of the new concept of strategic airpower. Today, Nutter is a retired superior court judge living in Santa Barbara, California. 
Michael Eric Dyson asks Is Bill Cosby Right? (Or has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind?) ($23.00, Basic Books). Dyson is the prolific author of ten books that explore black history and culture, and is currently a professor of humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. Bill Cosby needs no introduction, having been a part of our lives for several decades as a comedian and television star. He has also been an outspoken critic of the black community in America. Dyson disputes Cosby’s famed attack on the black poor in 2004 at an NAACP dinner to celebrate Brown v. Board of Education, defending black parenting, education, and popular culture. He reviews the barriers that still exist for many blacks in America. Cosby’s criticisms, says Dyson, will not bring about reform in the nation’s prisons, public school funding, and other areas he says need improvement. I am in no position to defend either the author or Cosby, so I will leave it to the reader to sort it out. 
A number of really outstanding new children’s books have arrived and among there was the fifth in a delightful series, called Ernest & Elston ($15.95, Barnesyard Books, Sergeantsville, NJ). Written by Laura T. Barnes and illustrated by Carol A. Camburn, this book, great for those 4 to 8, tells the story of Elston, a rooster, who thinks no one likes him because he wakes them up every morning. Ernest, a miniature donkey tried to convince him otherwise. The characters are all drawn from the author’s actual farm, but it is her imagination that will entertain her happy readers. To learn more about the other Ernest books, visit 
Judith Gould is a bestselling author with more than five million books in print. If you want to know why, pick up a copy of Dreamboat ($23.95, New American Library), just out this month. You will discover what happens when Crissy Gregory, a hair designer from Albany, NY, decides to take a month long vacation on a trans-Atlantic cruise from Greece to the Caribbean in hopes of shaking up her humdrum existence. When she meets Dr. Luca di Salerno, her vacation and her life change course forever. And on top of that, Mark Vilos, a rich, handsome shipping line heir becomes obsessed with her. It gets a little frightening and that’s all I am going to say. The Writing on the Wall by Lynne Sharon Schwartz ($24.00, Counterpoint, an imprint of the Perseus Group) is set against the background of 9-11, telling the story of a librarian who has found comfort in her books as a way to keep the world at bay. When she meets a man with the promise to transform that life, her solid routine is shaken up, but as she walks across the Brooklyn Bridge that day, her world and ours is about to be changed forever.