The Buzz...About Books

May 16 is Biographers Day

Today is the anniversary of the first meeting between Samuel Johnson and James Boswell.  The men met in 1763 in a London bookstore.  The meeting and friendship led to the publication of Boswell's landmark biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson (also available as an eBook). 

May 16 has been designated as Biographers Day in honour of this meeting.  Why not celebrate by reading a biography?

These are books about extraordinary and sometimes unlikely friendships.

Boswell's Presumptuous Task: the Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson by Adam Sisman
Sisman documents Boswell and Johnson's friendship, detailing Boswell's struggle to complete the legendary biography.

The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das by Merrily Weisbrod
Canadian writer Weisbrod was nominated for the 2011 Charles Taylor prize for this memoir about her friendship with controversial Indian writer Kamala Das.

Mrs Lincoln and Mrs Keckly: the Remarkable Story of the Friendship between a First Lady and a Former Slave by Jennifer Fleischner
Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckly were both born in 1818 but their early lives were radically different. The Todd family were well-respected and upwardly mobile; Keckly was the product of a relationship between her slave mother and her white master. Keckly's skill as a seamstress brought her to the attention of Mrs Lincoln and she soon became one of the First Lady's most trusted confidantes.

Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship by Dave Kindred
Although outwardly different, sportscaster Howard Cosell and boxer Mohammad Ali formed a complex relationship during the turbulent 1960s.

White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple
Although they only met twice, Dickinson and Higginson forged a complex and long-lasting friendship through letters. This account of their relationship is based upon 25 years of letters set to Higginson by Dickinson.

This is merely a small selection of the biographies available at Toronto Public Library.  Please consult with staff at your local branch for more suggestions.

Is Geek the New Cool?

In the book, Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits are Taking Over the World a geek is defined as: "a person who's passionate about something and strives to be an expert."

Recently one of my friends commented that while we were in school, being a geek was considered a bad thing! This statement made me think. Have things truly changed? Are geeks now more socially accepted? Or have the geeks of the past simply grown up to design computers and make television shows like the Big Bang Theory and blockbuster superhero movies. These geeks have grown into successful adults. Is it true, just as the book title suggests, that The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth?

The following are a few of my favourite geeky books and movies, including a few biographies by some self-proclaimed geeks, who made it big.

Non-Fiction

Fiction

 
                 

DVDs

                                                        

Successful Geeks

Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

This year, for the first time since 1977, there will be no Pulitzer Prize given for fiction.  The jurors have announced that they could not reach a concensus and will therefore not present this award.

The Pulitzer Prizes for books are awarded in several categories.

Biography or Autobiography

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
George F. Kennan: an American Life by John Lewis Gaddis

Finalists:
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel

Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
        Audiobook
        eBook
        Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Drama

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Finalists:
Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz

Sons of the Prophet by Stephen Karam

Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finalists:
The Pale King: an Unfinished Novel by David Foster Wallace
        Audiobook
        Large Print

Swamplandia by Karen Russell
        eAudiobook
        eBook       

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

General Non-Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
        eAudiobook

Finalists:
One Hundred Names for Love: a Stroke, a Marriage and the Language of Healing by Diane Ackerman
        Large Print
        eAudiobook

Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men by Mara Hvistendahl

History

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention by Manning Maracle
        Audiobook
        eBook
        Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Finalists:
Empires, Nations & Families: a History of the North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F. Hyde

The Eleventh Day: the Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan

Railroaded: the Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White

Poetry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner:
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Finalists:
Core Samples from the World by Forrest Gander

How Long by Ron Padgett

No Fooling: Five Books for April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a day set aside for pranks, jokes and general trickery however there are some individuals who construct complex illusions about their own lives and maintain them for extended periods of time. These books are biographies of infamous impostors.

Catch Me If You Can: the Amazing True Story of the Most Extraordinary Liar in the History of Fun and Profit by Frank W. Abagnale
Serial impostor Frank Abagnale impersonated doctors, lawyers, professors and even a Pan-Am pilot while cashing $2.5 million in forged cheques all before his 21st birthday.

• Audiobook
• Talking Book
• eAudiobook
  

La Grande Thérèse: the Greatest Scandal of the Century by Hilary Spurling
In reality an impoverished peasant, Thérèse Humbert reinvented herself as a rich heiress fooling and swindling those around her as she became an influential member of social and political scene in late 19th century Paris.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: the Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter by Mark Seal
Christian Gerhartsreiter assumed various identities to climb the social ladder, convincing many people, including his wife, that he was a member of the Rockefeller family before his deception fell apart completely and he was arrested on kidnapping charges.

• Large Print
  

The Perfect Prince: the Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and his Quest for the Throne of England by Ann Wroe
Perkin Warbeck was the son of a boatman in Flanders who challenged Henry VII for the throne claiming to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower believed to have been murdered by Richard III.

Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life by Andrea Stanfield
Stanfield lied about her credentials in an interview with an accounting firm and eventually built a successful career on the basis of this falsehood. This memoir was written in order to cope with guilt over her dishonesty and as a warning to employers that people may not always be what they seem.

The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery by Greg King and Penny Wilson
Historians King and Wilson explore the story of Anna Anderson, a troubled young woman who claimed to be Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II.

A journey of a hundred feet...

One of the best things about working in a library is exchanging book recommendations with colleagues and customers.  My thanks to my co-worker Joanne for this recommendation!

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C Morais is the fictional memoir of Hassan Haji, a three-star chef in Paris. Born above his grandfather's restaurant in Mumbai, Hassan and his family leave India after a terrible tragedy.   After moving around for several years, they finally settle in a small town in the French Alps and continue the family tradition by opening an Indian restaurant. 

Unfortunately, not everyone is happy with these new residents.  Madame Mallory is the owner and chef of Le Saule Pleureur, an inn and two-star restaurant which is located across the street from the Haji's new restaurant.   After seeing the impact of the new restaurant on her business and her community, she becomes irate and becomes determined to drive the Haji family away. 

The conflict between Chef Mallory and the Hassan's family soon escalates out of control.  To make amends, she offers to take Hassan as her apprentice to be trained as a French chef.  It is this hundred-foot journey from his family's restaurant to Le Saule Pleureur which will change Hassan's life forever.

While the Hundred-Foot Journey is fictional, it may inspire you to read a memoir or biography of a famous chef.  Here is a selection:

• Humble Pie by Gordon Ramsay
• Alice Waters & Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
• Kitchen Confidential : Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
• Blood, Bones, & Butter : the Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
• Beaten, Seared, and Sauced : On Becoming a Chef at the Culinary Institute of America by Jonathan Dixon
• Michel Roux : A Life in the Kitchen by Michel Roux

 

For some suggestions of other novels that feature food, check out this post on the York Woods District Blog:

• Fiction for Foodies

 

 

Christopher Hitchens: 1949 - 2011

 
Christopher Hitchens, British author and essayist, died last night of complications related to cancer. A fierce intellectual and polemicist, Hitchens was no stranger to controversy. Indeed, his impressive body of work has both engaged and enraged his many readers over the years - and his passing has resulted in an outpouring of editorials reflecting on his life and work.  

Read obits from the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian, the National Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Daily Mail and Vanity Fair.

See Vanity's Fair's photo essay.  Read some of his memorable quotes here and here.

Watch Hitchen's inteview with Sally Quinn of the Washington Post in which he reflects upon his life's work. 

 

The Guardian reports on a forthcoming memoir, Mortality, based on his Vanity Fair columns.

Until then:

 

 

 

 

 

• God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
• Hitch-22: A Memoir
• Arguably: Essays 
• The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism

 

Hitchens in 1968.

 

How to Live, Work and Play in the City

All of us have at least one brilliant friend with endlessly fascinating ideas and opinions, but few of us do anything about it. Toronto novelist Sheila Heti decided to sit down with her friend Misha Glouberman and write down everything he knew.

The result of their collaboration is a lively and very readable self-help book that distills the culture of downtown Toronto.

It's called The Chairs Are Where the People Go: How to Live, Work and Play in the City.

Most of the chapters are a page or two long.

The opinions are Glouberman's. The editing is Heti's.

Glouberman is a wonderful talker. I was impressed by his good sense and the down-to-earth nature of his sometimes surprising opinions. Here is a sampling.

• From Why a Computer Only Lasts Three Years -- "The typewriter that lasted for fifty years wasn't built in a world where the machines we type on on become a hundred times more powerful every three years."
• From Kensington Market [on Pedestrian Sundays] -- "Neighborhoods that are really good, I think, are places that feel like people live there. When you throw a huge, noisy street party every Sunday, it really creates the impression that people don't live there... Who would think that what their own neighborhood needs is to have a drum circle and an amplified performance poet outside their own home every single Sunday all summer? So a festival like [Pedestrian Sundays] creates the message that the neighborhood belongs to the people who come there as an entertainment destination, not to the people who live there."
• From Why Robert McKee Is Wrong About Casablanca -- "The idea that love is something magical, almost supernatural, in your heart, that has nothing to do with the day-to-day encounters with a real person ... has probably created more unhappiness and ruined more marriages than just about anything."

Jackie O: First Lady Gets the Last Word

Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy are Jacqueline Kennedy's candid interviews with Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a few months after her husband's assassination on November 22, 1963. Sealed at her request, the tapes were recently released by her daughter, Caroline, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of JFK's presidency. 

Listen to excerpts of Jackie's interviews posted by the New York Times. But don't let the breathy little-girl voice fool you. This gossip girl has claws.

No one is safe. Martin Luther King Jr., Indira Ghandi, Churchill, DeGaulle, FDR, LBJ, Lady Bird. Jackie O?  More like, "Oh no, she didn't."  

Watch Diane Sawyer's coverage on Nightline. Watch Caroline on Good Morning America address some of the more troubling opinions expressed by her mother and the effect these comments had on the Kennedy clan.

In the end, these interviews offer a glimpse into a time and place - the real-life Mad Men era - and it's not always pretty.

 

Further reading on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Greg Lawrence
• Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books by William M. Kuhn
• Jacqueline Kennedy: the White House Years by Hamish Bowles
• America's Queen: the Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford

One of Many Extraordinary Canadians

Growing up like many young Canadians, I enjoyed reading the Anne of Green Gables novels. After devouring the books, I wanted to learn everything there was to know about this amazing author. Having written such a lovely series of books, with a relatable young heroine, I thought that the author's life must have been just as carefree and uplifting. Upon reading L. M. Montgomery's journals, I was shocked to discover that she had in fact led a very unhappy life and despite living to see the public adoration of her work, had been very unsatisfied with her life and family.

Her biography written by Jane Urquhart, entitled, Lucy Maud Montgomery, explored the fact that Montgomery had been forced to virtually divide herself into different people, her public persona; caregiver and wife to her mentally unstable husband; and author to her many devoted fans. This biography was very enjoyable and readable. Using excerpts from Montgomery's journals, Urquhart's biography examines how the author dealt with many obstacles she faced and the various choices she made, for better or worse.

This biography is part of a series entitled, Extraordinary Canadians, which focus on famous Canadians and are written by well-known contemporary Canadians. The series began in 2008 and three new titles were published this year. There are biographies on artists, such as Emily Carr; musicians, like Glenn Gould; politicians, including Wilfrid Laurier and Pierre Elliott Trudeau; and even First Nations People, like Big Bear. These biographies are written by famous Canadians such as, Joseph Boyden, Adrienne Clarkson, Vincent Lam, David Adams Richards, and M. G. Vassanji, just to name a few. More information about this series can be found here.

If you are interested in learning more about Lucy Maud Montgomery, check these out:

The "Stars" are Dancing - again

The next season of Dancing with the Stars will premiere on September 19th on CTV.  Will Season 13 be lucky for one of the new contestants? 

The group of "stars" for the upcoming season has just been announced.  It is an eclectic mix of celebrities including Chaz Bono, Ricki Lake, Chynna Phillips, David Arquette and one of the numerous Kardashians - brother Rob.   ABC has the full list, with bios on all the contestants.

After appearing on the hit show, quite a number of contestants have published memoirs.  Here is a selection:

National Football League Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice appeared on Season 2 and made it all the way to 2nd place. In Go Long!:my journey beyond the game and the fame he shares the lessons and practices that helped him achieve success during his football career with the San Franciso 49ers and the Oakland Raiders as well as on Dancing with the Stars.

Short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno first came to our attention at the Salt Lake Winter Olympic games in 2002 when he won a gold and silver medals. He went on to win another gold and two bronze medals at the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy in 2006.  In the spring of 2007, he won the glitter ball with partner Julianne Hough in Season 4.  In his book, Zero regrets: be greater than yesterday he shares the inspiring personal story of his journey to Olympic glory and his secrets for success.

We've known Marie Osmond since she was a "little bit county" to her brother Donny's  "little bit rock'n roll" on the Donny and Marie show in the 1970's.  Her participation in Season 5 of Dancing with the Stars was quite memorable  - who could forget the moment she passed out on live TV?!  Always a professional, she picked herself up and finished the competition in 3rd place.   In her book,  Might As Well Laugh About It Now, she writes about the many successes and challenges she has had in her life - both personal and professional. It is also available in Large Print and eBook.

Bristol Palin was probably the most controversial contestant in Dancing with the Stars history.  In season 11 she finished in 3rd place, although some thought her success was due to her mother's political supporters and not a reflection of her dancing.  In her book,  Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, she gives readers an intimate look at her life, her growing up in Alaska and her coming of age as the daughter of Alaska's most famous politican.

Cheryl Burke has participated as one of the professional dancers in every season of DWTS since season 2, when she won the mirror ball trophy with Drew Lachey.  She won again the following season with Emmett Smith.  In her book,  Dancing lessons: how I found passion and potential on the dance floor and in life, she talks about her life as a dancer, choreographer and her years working on Dancing with the Stars.

 Don't Mind if I Do by George Hamilton (Season 2, 5th place). Also available in Large Print.

I'll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin (Season 6, 7th place).

Cloris: my autobiography by Cloris Leachman (Season 7, 7th place). Also available in Large Print.

All My Life by Susan Lucci (Season 7, 6th place). Also available as an eAudiobook.

The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring by Sugar Ray Leonard (Season 12, 9th place)