Fenwick vs. Felicity
Students earn scholarships
Minster vs. Southeastern
Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > December
December 2007
somewhere in Iowa
A dozen presidential hopefuls are still going through the motions somewhere in Iowa.
The Iowa caucuses are mere days away. They’ll be sorting the wheat from the chaff somewhere in Iowa.
Hillary is trying to be brave. Her smile looks more like a grimace somewhere in Iowa.
Mike the Baptist preacher still can’t believe he is running ahead of Mitt and Rudy in the latest polling from somewhere in Iowa.
Barack is on the attack somewhere in Iowa.
Who will come out on top in this initial contest? As the smoke clears and the votes are tallied like bushels of soybeans on their way to market who will be the winners? And which defeated souls will straggle wearily away from those wintry wastes of desolation somewhere in Iowa?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: politicked
what was the best book you read in 2007?
2007 is history. Everywhere we look we see the best of 2007 lists- the best movies-the best music- the best books.
I want to know the best book that you read during 2007 ? Please share the title with us in the comments section and explain why you liked that particular book.
Happy New Year!
Next Sunday I’ll have my non-fiction favorites from 2007.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (30) | Categories: what do you think?
my fiction favorites from 2007
I read the New York Times every day. They run so many book reviews! Their #1 book reviewer is Michiko Kakutani. Over the years I have found that I disagree with some of her reviews. When she pans a book I will try to read it and I sometimes find that I like it. When she loves a book I sometimes find that I didn’t really care for it.
The top reviewers at the Times, Michiko, Janet Maslin, and William Grimes just published their lists of favorite books from the past year. When I perused Michiko’s list I was astonished. She liked some of the same books that I did!? Amazing!
I cannot believe it! Here is Michiko’s list:
Michiko Kakutani
HOUSE OF MEETINGS by Martin Amis. This harrowing, deeply affecting novel recounts the story of two brothers interned at one of Stalin’s slave labor camps, taking the reader on a frightening journey deep into the heart of darkness that was the Soviet gulag.
THE SECOND CIVIL WAR: HOW EXTREME PARTISANSHIP HAS PARALYZED WASHINGTON AND POLARIZED AMERICA by Ronald Brownstein. A veteran political reporter provides a shrewd election-year assessment of the growing partisanship in American politics, looking at the roots of this polarization and its alarming consequences for the country at large.
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION by Michael Chabon. A clever, engaging and fully imagined epic cum detective story based on this historical what if: What if a temporary safe haven for Jews had been created in Alaska in the wake of the Holocaust?
NIXON AND KISSINGER: PARTNERS IN POWER by Robert Dallek. A fascinating portrait of President Richard M. Nixon and his chief foreign policy honcho, Henry A. Kissinger, a book that not only deftly deconstructs their emotionally fraught relationship and their policy making on Vietnam, the Middle East and China, but also underscores the historical lessons of their decisions and missteps.
THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Díaz. A dazzling debut novel that unfolds from a comic portrait of a second-generation Dominican geek into an unnerving meditation on Dominican history and the relationship between political and personal dreams and losses.
THE UNKNOWN TERRORIST by Richard Flanagan. This Tasmanian novelist has written a dark, unsparing thriller about a case of mistaken identity, using his Hitchcockian heroine’s plight as a launching pad for an examination of a post-9/11 world in which fear is a valued commodity for terrorists and governments alike.
WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN: A MEMOIR OF AFRICA by Peter Godwin. A haunting and deeply evocative memoir about a writer’s discoveries about his father’s hidden past and his family’s life in Zimbabwe, a country that has seen its bright post-revolution dreams of a multiracial society give way to violent hatred and strife.
SCHULZ AND PEANUTS by David Michaelis. A revealing and sympathetic new biography of the creator of “Peanuts,” which highlights the autobiographical sources of the cartoonist’s art: how Charles M. Schulz gave his own wishy-washiness and determination to Charlie Brown, his sarcasm and anger to Lucy, his dignity and “weird little thoughts” to Linus and his frustrations and daydreams to Snoopy.
THE NINE: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF THE SUPREME COURT by Jeffrey Toobin. A vivid narrative of the Supreme Court’s recent history and an intimate portrait of the individual justices that shows how personality, judicial philosophy and personal alliances can inform decisions that affect the entire country.
LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA by Tim Weiner. A timely, compelling and prodigiously researched history of the C.I.A. by a reporter for The New York Times that chronicles an alarming litany of intelligence blunders and bungled operations, from the agency’s creation after World War II through the cold war to its recent failures in the prelude to the Iraq war.
Here’s my fave fiction list for 2007….Michiko and I picked a couple of the same books!
“The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” by Michael Chabon. This clever novel merges detective mystery thriller with alternate history. After the state of Israel collapsed in 1948, a Jewish enclave was created in Sitka, Alaska. Chabon’s grizzled homicide detective Meyer Landsman lives in a fleabag motel. When a neighbor down the hall is murdered, Landsman takes it personally. As he seeks out clues he gets entangled in a sinister web of crime syndicates and deadly chess games. Chabon soars across literary canyons with exuberant abandon in this noir plot boiler.
“Canaan” by Donald McCaig. It took a long time for McCaig to pen this sequel to his Civil War novel “Jacob’s Ladder.” It was well worth the wait. “Canaan” unfolds during the two decades between the end of the Civil War and Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. This prodigious imagining of the lives of soldiers, former slaves and the last remnants of American Indians fleeing the encroachment of railroads and white settlers is splendidly wrought. McCaig has written a western of monumental power.
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz. This story bounces across the pages. Oscar is intelligent, overweight and obsessed. He’s a Dominican kid living in New Jersey with his comic books and a fantasy of one day finding the woman of his dreams. The action shifts to the Dominican Republic, where Oscar becomes enamored with a dangerous female. This inspirational tragedy unfolds with diabolical precision among astonishing footnotes.
“Diary of a Bad Year” by J.M. Coetzee. Published this week. Coetzee is a South African who resides in Australia. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. His main character, Senor C, is a distinguished author living in Australia. He hires an attractive young woman from his apartment building to help out with a writing project and more. Senor C expresses lacerating opinions like: “democracy does not allow for politics outside the democratic system. In this sense, democracy is totalitarian.” Coetzee tantalizes readers into learning a new way of reading.
“The Ministry of Special Cases” by Nathan Englander. Set in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s “Dirty War.” The young people of Argentina were being abducted and swallowed by Argentina’s state security system. Most were never heard from again. The Poznan family experienced this national nightmare when their son was arrested for possessing banned books. His parents searched for him and they were drawn into the maze of “The Ministry of Special Cases.” The things they found out were chilling. A whole generation of children simply disappeared.
Honorable mentions: Laura Lippman’s “What the Dead Know.” James Lee Burke’s “The Tin Roof Blowdown.” Garrison Keillor’s “Pontoon.”
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: that's what they say
the battle for wine and love
Here is another book to look forward to in 2008: The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization (Harcourt/ May 19, 2008) by Alice Feiring is being ballyhooed as a book that will change the way we think about wine.
There is actually a group on the FACEBOOK social networking site that is devoted to this forthcoming book. Here’s their plug for the author:
“ALICE FEIRING is a James Beard Foundation Award-winning journalist whose blog, In Vino Veritas was named one of the seven best by Food & Wine Magazine. Formerly the wine/travel columnist for Time, she writes for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Condé Nast Traveler, and Gourmet, among many others. She lives in New York City.”
Of course, you’ll want to check out her wine blog In Vino Veritas. This is her mission statement as it appears on her blog:
“What am I looking for in wine?
I’m looking for the Leon Trotskys, the Philip Roths, the Chaucers and the Edith Whartons of the wine world. I want my wines to tell a good story. I want them natural and most of all, like my dear friends, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue. With this messiah thing going on, I’m trying to swell the ranks of those who love the differences in each vintage, who abhor homogenization, who want wines that make them smile, think, laugh,and feel sexy. For better or worse, it seems as if I am a wine cop traversing the earth, writing and speaking my mind, drinking and recommending wines that are honest.
Please check in frequently for news of my latest travels, travel, wine tips and rants.”
I love this “wine cop’s” literary allusions to wines!
If you are looking for more links to wine blogs you must check out Mark Fisher’s excellent wine blog UNCORKED here at the DDN, if you haven’t already. Mark is a gifted wine writer and his blog has lots of links to a plethora of wine musings.
I’m really looking forward to reading The Battle for Wine and Love by Alice Feiring.
Happy New Year! Beware of the dreaded Parkerization….
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
the meltdown in Pakistan
The assassination in Pakistan Thursday of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, marks an escalation in the violence that is engulfing the area.
Here is the author Juan Cole’s take on the situation. Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute. His most recent book is Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East.
Cole cites a New York Times article which stated that Bhutto returned to Pakistan as a part of the “Rice Plan” formulated by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice:
“The NYT reported that US Secretary of State Condi Rice tried to fix Musharraf’s subsequent dwindling legitimacy by arranging for Benazir to return to Pakistan to run for prime minister, with Musharraf agreeing to resign from the military and become a civilian president. When the supreme court seemed likely to interfere with his remaining president, he arrested the justices, dismissed them, and replaced them with more pliant jurists. This move threatened to scuttle the Rice Plan, since Benazir now faced the prospect of serving a dictator as his grand vizier, rather than being a proper prime minister.
With Benazir’s assassination, the Rice Plan is in tatters and Bush administration policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan is tottering.”
A new biography of Rice by the New York Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life was reviewed today in the Times by the historian, Robert Dallek.
Dallek states:
“Ms. Bumiller says that if President Bush and Ms. Rice can produce a settlement in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians and an end to North Korea’s nuclear program, it would give them claims on success that would significantly improve their historical reputations.
But implicit in this assessment is the view that foreign policy failures have troubled the Bush presidency. And even if Ms. Rice and the president manage to achieve the sort of Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement that has eluded all previous administrations over the last 60 years and tame the North Korean communist regime, it is doubtful that these would be enough to counter what most people see as the administration’s failures in Iraq.
Ms. Rice’s record here as both national security adviser and secretary of state will surely undermine her historical standing. “She knows very well that if she doesn’t do anything” about the Middle East, “she will be Iraq,” a European diplomat who was a friend of Ms. Rice told Ms. Bumiller.”
If that is the case, that Condi Rice was hoping to make peace in the Middle East and/or handle the North Korean situation to rehabilitate her reputation and distract attention away from her role in the Iraq fiasco, then this latest disaster and looming meltdown in Pakistan will surely diminish her diplomatic reputation even further.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: that's what they say
Ain’t My America
Notes from the Book Nook mail room… I’m starting to get books in the mail that are addressed to: Vick Mickunas-Blogger.
The advance galleys for the upcoming year are piling up like yesterday’s gift wrap.
I just got a title that intrigues me: AIN’T MY AMERICA- The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism by Bill Kauffman (Metropolitan Books-April 15, 2008) promises to pique and tweak the memories and minds of some readers.
Here’s an excerpt from the pre-publication blurb:
The current political atmosphere feeds into the notion that conservatives love war, empire, and the military-industrial complex. Kauffman makes clear that true conservatives have always resisted the imperial and military impulse because it drains the treasury, curtails domestic liberties, breaks down families, and vulgarizes culture. He traces the actions of true conservatives from their opposition to the War of 1812, to their resistance of American involvement in the Korean War, to the current conservative critics of the war in Iraq. Vilified by George W. Bush supporters, these peaceful, decentralized, and non-interventionist conservatives represent the true beliefs of a now misunderstood political ideology.”
Does anybody know the true definition of a “conservative?” What do you think a “conservative” really is? What do “conservatives” stand for? Enlighten us, please.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
happy holidays from the book nook….
Here’s to surviving another one….
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: clearing the cobwebs
my favorite fiction from 2007
Check out my list this coming Sunday in the Dayton Daily News. One of my favorite books was just published.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: looks good on paper
the pig did it
Last week I interviewed Joseph Caldwell for WYSO Public Radio (91.3fm). Caldwell is a playwright and a novelist. His new novel THE PIG DID IT (Delphinium Books) takes readers on a whimsical sojourn in an Ireland that probably doesn’t exist anymore, except perhaps, in the author’s imagination.
This book is the first book in a planned trilogy that revolves around a pig that seems to always turn up at the right moment. To listen to my interview with Joseph Caldwell click here.
I love this little book! I think that we shall be hearing the squeals of delight from many readers who were enchanted by Caldwell’s porcine prose. That pig really did it!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: heard on the radio
keeping readers in SUSPENSE
Back in the 1980’s I was living in Des Moines when a shocking crime took place. A young newspaper delivery boy was abducted one morning while he was delivering his route. The case has never been solved.
That same year another newspaper carrier, another young boy, vanished from the desolate early morning streets of Des Moines. Neither case has ever been solved. Both boys vanished, never to be seen again.
Some years later I was working in an office building where the mother of that first missing boy worked. She had brought national attention to the crime. Photos of missing children began to appear on cartons of milk.
On a couple of occasions I was on an elevator with her. We were alone. She didn’t know me. I recognized her from all the newspaper coverage about her son’s abduction. She had the most incredibly haunted look in her eyes. She looked right at me. I couldn’t help but think that she was looking at me with the thought of what her son might look like now.
David Levien has taken the theme of the missing newsboy as his central plot device in a new work of stunning crime fiction, CITY OF THE SUN (Doubleday).
I’m reading an advance galley of the book. It will be out in March. What a page turner!
Levien is being hailed by his peers as a fresh new talent to be noticed. Harlan Coben, Robert Crais, and Lincoln Child are singing his praises in blurbs for this new book.
Levien has some really bad dudes scuzzing around in this one. I predict that Levien will become a big name in the suspense genre.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
is Hillary Clinton electable?
In our previous blog entry, is Barack Obama electable? we elicited a range of responses from our readers.
Obama is giving the presumptive Democratic front runner for the presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, a bit of a battle now for the advantage in the upcoming Iowa caucuses according to recent polling in Iowa. John Edwards is lurking, waiting for his opportunity.
With the Republican field stumbling into some disarray as Mike Huckabee seems to be tripping up Mitt Romney while Rudy Giuliani waits for things to shake out, we have some uncertainty in both parties.
Which begs the question; is Hillary Clinton electable? If she wins the Democratic nomination can she win it all and become our first female president?
What do you think? Will she win the nomination? And if she is chosen as the nominee for the Democrats can she win the grand prize, 4 years in the Oval Office?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: politicked
is Barack Obama electable?
As the Iowa caucuses draw near some people are wondering how far Barack Obama can go? Obama has pulled slightly ahead of Hillary Clinton in the Iowa polling. Clinton has gone from being the presumptive Democratic nominee to a pitched battle for supremacy in early trials like Iowa.
A new book takes a look at Obama’s chances. A BOUND MAN (Free Press) by Shelby Steele is his attempt to explain his views on Obama’s quest.
Steele, who like Obama, was born to a white mother and a black father, argues “why we are excited about Obama and why he can’t win.”
There’s solidarity for you. His main point seems to be that Obama’s privileged background has prevented him from possessing what he calls a “black identity.”
I don’t agree with some his points but it is a fascinating subject to be sure.
What do you think? Can Obama secure the Democratic nomination? If he does, can he go on to attain the highest office in the land?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: politicked
still shopping?
Have you procrastinated? Are you still looking for that WOW gift? I have a suggestion.
THROUGH THE EYES OF THE CONDOR: An Aerial Vision of Latin America is a mind blowing coffee table size book recently published by National Geographic.
The title describes the book fairly well. These are aerial photos of some of the most astounding terrain and bodies of water that you will ever see.
It’s not cheap; 50 bucks, but it might just fill the bill and impress that special someone. You procrastinated. Time to pay up.
Robert Haas took these photos. The man is a genius.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: looks good on paper
replacing Harry Potter
The Harry Potter franchise will continue to sell books. Now that Potter’s creator JK Rowling has put an end to the series, Potter’s publisher, Scholastic Books is praying for another plump goose that will lay lots of golden eggs. It won’t be easy finding one as fat as Potter was. Kajillions of dollars later, that goose has finally been retired.
An article in today’s edition of the New York Times plots their wistful strategy.
Here’s one other view from the Book Standard:
Scholastic to Launch Multi-Platform ‘39 Clues’ Series December 18, 2007 By Kimberly Maul
Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the bestselling “Harry Potter” series, is hoping to re-create some of J.K. Rowling’s magic with a new series: “The 39 Clues.” The multi-platform adventure series is for children ages 8 to 12 and will release 10 books over two years. Additionally, the series will include collectible cards and an online game.
“‘The 39 Clues’ is an immersive experience, whose high powered, adventurous storylines and characters are perfect for development across both traditional and new media platforms,” said Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Media. Each book will come with a set of six cards, which readers can register and manage online. Throughout the series, Scholastic will give away more than $100,000 in prizes through various contests.
“The 39 Clues” is a series about the powerful Cahill family, whose secret source of power can be uncovered after assembling 39 clues hidden around the world throughout history. The first book in the series, The Maze of Bones, by Rick Riordan, will be published in September 2008, with “The 39 Clues” adventure launching worldwide on Sept. 8, 2008. Different authors will write the upcoming books, including Gordon Korman (Book 2 in January 2009), Peter Lerangis (Book 3 in April 2009) and Jude Watson (Book 4 in July 2009).
“With the breakthrough concept of ‘The 39 Clues,’ Scholastic is uniquely positioned to reach millions of young people who are readers, gamers, collectors, or all three, and encourage them to participate in a multi-dimensional 21st Century reading experience,” said Ellie Berger, president of Scholastic Trade. “With this innovative series, Scholastic will reach millions of kids worldwide—getting them excited about books in a whole new way.”
Will it be as successful as Harry Potter? Call me doubtful. But then, I was a Potter Doubter so what do I know?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: booms and busts
who’s da boss? Why, it’s Paris Hilton!
This just in from JOURNALISTS AROUND THE WORLD; Paris Hilton has just paid 29 dollars to be the boss. Check it out: click here.
If you bid 30 dollars you can outbid Paris Hilton and be the boss! Go for it!
Perhaps you are wondering; what does this have to with books? Absolutely nothing!
Yay!
I’m so pleased that no books were harmed in the production of this blog post.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: laughable
Facebook follies
Facebook is the popular social networking site that brings friends together from all over the world. Facebook has 55 million users and that number rises each day.
I have been enjoying Facebook since it was opened up to adult users. Apparently, I’m not the only one.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Facebook is connecting with your Facebook friends. I made several new friend connections today.
My new Facebook friends are Bob Edwards, the former host of NPR’s Morning Edition who now hosts a program on XM Radio-Arianna Huffington, the writer and blogger who has the popular political blog, The Huffington Post-Peter Sagal, the host of WAIT WAIT DON’T TELL ME on public radio- Carl Kassel, Sagal’s NPR sidekick- the author and comedian Andy Borowitz, and Jane Hamsher, film producer and the blogger behind FIREDOGLAKE.
When you connect with Facebook friends you can see what they are doing. Here are some of the things my newest Facebook friends are doing:
Bob Edwards now wants you to go to ITunes and give his podcast a favorable review…
Peter Sagal joined the group WAIT WAIT DON’T TELL ME- we want Carl Kassel on our voicemail…
Jane Hamsher joined the group JOIN Chris Dodd to oppose retroactive immunity…
Facebook attracts a lot of people to join the site. You find out so many thing about your friends and best of all in my view, Facebook has the best on-line SCRABBLE application I have found.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: secret passions
do you relish useless information?
Do I ever have the book for you; THE BEST BOOK OF USELESS INFORMATION EVER (Perigee) by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society.
This secret society formed in England a dozen years ago. Here are some examples of the wonderfully useless information they have gathered. Did you know that:
The Statue of Liberty’s fingernails weigh about 100 pounds each?
Saunas outnumber cars in Finland?
The Swedish pop group ABBA once turned down $1 billion to reunite?
Without glasses, John Lennon was legally blind?
During a kiss, as many as 278 bacteria colonies are exchanged?
You see what I mean? Useless, but fascinating, right?
Here’s one last bit of uselessness:
The average American dog will cost its owner $20,000 dollars in its lifetime.
And worth every scent…
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: laughable
Rumpole Misbehaves
While the average American is spending seven hours a day watching television I am probably reading a book. That’s my preference.
When I do watch the boob tube my tastes usually run to British comedies and dramas. For instance, I adore the old BBC series ARE YOU BEING SERVED?. I chuckle just thinking about it.
Another favorite of mine is the series that is based on John Mortimer’s Rumpole, the rumpled and grumpy barrister who practices law at The Old Bailey in London. I don’t read the books as much as I should. Mortimer is still cranking them out.
I’m reading the latest, RUMPOLE MISBEHAVES (Viking) and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. When he mentions SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED I still laugh even after all these years. What a classic series it is!
Mortimer has Rumpole so pitch perfect by now that each new book is like reuniting with an old friend-pure bliss and comfort.
‘T is the perfect companion on a snowy December night. I can’t wait to curl up with Rumpole again tonight.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: secret passions
introducing baseball’s hall of shame
I’m a baseball fan. I was appalled when I read Jose Canseco’s book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. He named names-big names like Mark McGwire as steroid users.
I thought that Canseco would get sued if his allegations were untrue. As far as I know, nobody has ever sued Canseco about his claims in that book.
Yesterday the Mitchell report came out and named dozens of baseball players who had used steroids and/or human growth hormone.
Most of the players who were named were not big stars. But some of them were-guys like the pitcher Roger Clemens.
We knew something was wrong when we looked at Clemens and Sammy Sosa and Jason Giambi. They had those bulging bull necks. If you look at how skinny Barry Bonds used to be and compare him to the Bonds of 70 some home runs a few years back, they do look like different people.
I’m a diehard baseball fan. I’m deeply offended by all this. Jason Giambi was the only active player who cooperated with the Mitchell investigation.He was forced to do so. This is the tip of the iceberg.
It is a safe bet that there are many more players who cheated.
It makes me ill. Commissioner Bud Selig looked the other way as this stuff was going down. He must have known.
Sure, he commissioned the Mitchell inquiry. It was like locking the barn door after the barn has burned down-pathetic window dressing.
Selig should resign. What do you think of this mess?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: secret passions
one JK Rowling book sells for 4 million$$
I spend a lot of time checking out books over at Amazon.com. They just posted an announcement:
“We’re incredibly excited to announce that Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is extensively illustrated and handwritten by the bard herself—all 157 pages of it. It’s bound in brown Moroccan leather and embellished with five hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.”
Wow! Amazon really knows how to get positive publicity! They have a number of photos of the book on their site. Check it out here.
One never knows what one will find IN THE AMAZONE.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: in the Amazone
The Klausner patrol
It has come to my attention that some major media are snooping around. You might recall that a few months back I made some posts about the top customer reviewers over at Amazon.com.
Now it seems that there are some big-time journalistic excavations going on. Amazon.com has a really great system of allowing their customers to review books, CDs, DVD’s, and whatever Amazon sells on their site.
I really enjoy the customer reviews. Some of the top reviewers seem to have aroused some skepticism from certain quarters? It seems that there are some doubts about their ability to review so many things?
I’ll keep you posted.
Do you read the customer reviews on Amazon? Have you ever written one? If you ever check out the top customer reviewers on Amazon be sure to check out their numero uno reviewer by far. Her name is Harriet Klausner and nobody will ever catch up to her. Ever. Ever. Ever. NEVER.
One never knows what one will find IN THE AMAZONE.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: in the Amazone
George H. W. Bush re-examined
Over the last five years the American Presidents Series has published new biographies of 26 of our American presidents. This week the biography of George H.W. Bush was published.
Not to be confused with his son, George W. Bush, our current president, George H. W. Bush served one term that ran from 1989-1993. Prior to that he was vice president from 1980-88 under Ronald Reagan.
After the senior Bush left office he was written off by some historians as a weak leader who failed to maintain the unity of his Republican Party. He failed in his bid for re-election. He was regarded as distant and patrician, even as a somewhat inarticulate bumbler.
This new book, GEORGE H. W. BUSH by Timothy Naftali (Times Books) takes the somewhat revisionist viewpoint that perhaps the first President Bush wasn’t so bad after all.
His caution during the first Gulf War in rejecting suggestions that our forces should pursue the fleeing Iraqi Army and punish their leader Saddam Hussein was viewed by some members of his own party as a terrible mistake.
The passage of time allows us to take a longer view. His caution at that time seems more prudent now in the light of our more recent invasions and their murky results.
The senior Bush was concerned about financial deficits. He had some notion of political accountability. In light of the situation that now exists under the younger Bush these are such refreshing concepts!
This superb series has been edited by Sean Wilentz and the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. For information on the entire series the website is American Presidents Series.com
Presidential history buffs will enjoy this fresh look at the first Bush.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: politicked
looking for local authors
We have many aspiring authors writing books in our Miami Valley community. I have heard from some. They asked if I might consider reviewing their books? I am open to taking a look at any book. I can’t make promises but I am certainly interested in the best books that our area has to offer.
This past Sunday I reviewed a book by a local author for the print edition of the Dayton Daily News. Here’s the review:
Miami Valley’s flood protection system examined
“How Safe Are We? — Flood Management in the Miami Valley” by Gayle Price Jr. (68 pages, $19.95).
Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. In New Orleans the levees failed. Massive flooding left a swath of destruction.
That tragedy evoked memories for some Daytonians of the worst natural disaster in Miami Valley history, the Great Flood of 1913.
The 1913 flood caused $100 million in damages, equal to $2 billion today. Miami Valley residents of that era pledged $2 million in just two months to create a flood protection system.
The Miami Conservancy District was formed. Today, the MCD maintains five large dams and 60 miles of levees constructed by 1918 to control flooding.
For the past two decades, Gayle Price Jr. has been involved with the MCD. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it made some Daytonians wonder, “How safe are we?” Price, the retired CEO of Price Brothers of Dayton, wanted to try to answer that question.
The result of his efforts is a book, “How Safe Are We?” — Flood Management in the Miami Valley.” Price states, “My intention with this book was to prepare a simplified version to enlighten those in the region who were interested in the pioneering design process of Arthur Morgan.” Morgan was the genius behind the project.
The book contains a wealth of charts, maps and photographs. Price has juxtaposed a number of photos of Dayton underwater with the flooded New Orleans. Katrina remains fresh in our minds. These photos of Dayton submerged convey a potency that subtly enhances Price’s text.
In an interview, I asked Price, “How safe are we?” He couldn’t provide a precise answer to the question. He thinks that we need to look at flood protection in the Miami Valley and elsewhere by making different assumptions than the ones we currently operate under.
He explained, “The Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA have gotten hung up on the ‘100-year flood.’ They use that as a kind of benchmark to encourage people to get flood insurance if they’re in that kind of flood plain. But it has become kind of a standard for people to say that’s all I need, that’s what I should have.
“They may put a 100-year flood protection in place where they need 500 years. We need a national policy to tell people that. Even the flood insurance industry is telling people that a 100-year flood is really a 1 percent flood. In the time of a 30-year mortgage, there’s a 26 percent chance of being flooded. So you’ve got a 1-in-4 chance you’re going to be flooded. It’s sobering.”
Price said, “We have an excellent system, probably one of the best in the world,” here in the Dayton area. He has written “How Safe Are We” because “I’m looking to enlighten our constituents.”
The book is available at the Dayton Metro Library and can be purchased online at www.lulu.com/howsafe. Price notes that “a number of books have been purchased by young people for their fathers.”
Are you an aspiring author? Do you know someone who is? Has that book been published recently? Let me know about it. Thanks!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: looks good on paper
Rookwood on your radio
Paul Maassen manages WYSO Public Radio in Yellow Springs. He asked me to contribute an interview to a program that he hosts at the station;WYSO’s weekly newsmagazine, WYSO Weekend.
I asked Anita Ellis about her book; Rookwood and the American Indian: Masterpieces of American Art Pottery from the James J. Gardner Collection(Ohio University Press).
You can listen to the interview by clicking HERE.
I am delighted that Paul asked me to do this interview!
Public radio listeners consistently mention that reading books is a favorite leisure activity.
I have always believed that one recipe for crafting compelling radio goes as follows:
Take one good book. Read it completely. Find the author. Try to engage said author in an “intelligent conversation.” Broadcast interview to an audience of appreciative listeners. Voila! You have a chance to make some good radio.
Note…a compelling author interview is a bit like a souffle’. Sometimes author and/or interviewer fails to rise to the occasion and things fall flat. It happens. Like any chef one must go back to the kitchen to try the recipe again.
Hmmmm, perhaps different ingredients??
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: audiobook extra
Studs Terkel is still with us!
And he has written another memoir. It was reviewed for this Sunday’s edition of the New York Times. Here’s that review:
Studs’s Place
By DAN BARRY
TOUCH AND GO
A Memoir.
By Studs Terkel with Sydney Lewis.
Illustrated. 269 pp.
Imagine it is closing time, but the wizened man in the bar’s back booth shows no intention of leaving; he still has things to say. With martini-fueled words that carry gin’s sting and pleasure, he conjures memories that
curl like cigar smoke about his face, a face that’s been there, that fits the handle of Studs. Sardonic this moment, outraged the next, he rattles off names: Mahalia Jackson and David Dellinger; Nelson Algren and Eugene V. Debs; Kukla, Fran and Ollie, as if to measure how little you know. What’s that? You’ve never heard of Hetty Green, the parsimonious witch and wonder of Wall Street? She always wore the same old black dress and. … The bartender flickers the lights and calls “time,” but the old man keeps talking. Kid, he growls. You should know these things.
This approaches the experience of reading “Touch and Go,” the memoir by the professional listener, talker, actor, author and conscience of long memory Studs Terkel It hardly matters that he is 95 years old; that he has weathered myriad medical challenges, including open-heart surgery just two years ago; that his ears, once so attuned, don’t hear so well anymore. He talks on: something reminds him of something else, which reminds him of another thing, and suddenly what risked becoming a disjointed ramble blossoms into a prose poem.
The volume has been cobbled together, but is not a mishmash. Terkel, a proud technophobe, banged out some memories on a typewriter and resurrected a few others from several previous works, including his spoken-history classics, “Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression” and “‘The Good War’: An Oral History of World War II.” The rest has been rounded out by his conversations with an old friend and associate, Sydney Lewis.
What emerges is an engrossing stream-of-consciousness meditation on the 20th century by a man who, it seems, never forgave himself for being born three weeks after the sinking of the Titanic, and so he vowed in the crib to bear witness — to everything. Imagine his life’s checklist: the Roaring Twenties in Chicago, the Depression, World War II: done, done, done. The golden age of radio? Yep. The advent of television? Had his own show. The blacklist? Was among the so-honored. It goes on.
The man has lived so long and so colorfully that few would begrudge him a second memoir; his first, “Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times,” was published 30 years ago, when he had lived only two-thirds of his life to date. With “Touch and Go,” he wholly rejects a now-where-was-I sequel and starts again at the beginning, as if to plumb the meaning of a century lived.
Terkel writes like the jazz enthusiast he is, spinning the early memory of having his hair tousled by his father’s mistress, whose name was Hannah Stein but in memory is Valentino’s sultry wife, Natacha, who reminds him of the silent-film vamp Pola Negri, who brings to mind another vamp, Theda Bara, whose real name was Theodosia Goodman, of Cincinnati — and off we go. Within a few pages he is lamenting his nasty radio interview at the start of World War II with the actor and conscientious objector Lew Ayres; resurrecting a hoary saying from Woodrow Wilson’s forgotten vice president, Thomas Marshall; and returning somehow to the troubled marriage of his hard-working immigrant parents.
Though familiar to anyone acquainted with the Terkel canon, the tales of his family’s management of a Chicago rooming house stand out. Railroad workers passed through, as did Wobblies and Great War vets, united in their loneliness and desire for a better world. It was at this time that the young Terkel learned the twinned arts of empathy and listening. Take, for example, his description of a dishwasher named Joe Chch, who, when not scribbling down his fevered thoughts, would drink and wail through the night, Ow, ow, ow — “crying out,” Terkel writes, “for his missing vowel.”
Here and there Terkel cops to self-absorption. Here and there he seems less than kind, as when he links the spectacular fall and eventual suicide of the television personality Dave Garroway to the closing lines of Edward Arlington Robinson’s poem “Richard Cory” (“And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, / Went home and put a bullet through his head”).
But these are rare moments, entirely overshadowed by Terkel’s generosity of spirit, sense of social justice and commitment to capture on his ever present tape recorder the voices of those who otherwise would not be heard. He is our Henry Mayhew, the chronicler of Victorian London who wanted to hear what the chimney sweeps had to say.
Now, in his 10th decade, Terkel has a right to be cranky, and he occasionally exercises it, complaining about a generation that knows more about Britney Spears than about Frederick Douglass. You can almost hear him muttering in that bar’s back booth what he mutters in the book: “Do I have to be 94 years old to remember these names? Are they otherwise erased from history?” Aah. …
But then this dark thought would somehow conjure a bright memory — the time he witnessed a birth, greeted the newborn with “Welcome to the world!” and tape-recorded the child’s first glorious yowl. By now the bartender would be sitting in that back booth, listening too, because Studs isn’t finished.
Dan Barry, a national correspondent for The Times, is the author of “City Lights: Stories About New York.”
I interviewed Studs a few years ago on my radio show. He wasn’t even 90 yet. 89 I believe. What an amazing experience to go along for the ride in conversation with Studs.
Last year he came to Dayton to receive the first Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement. I spent the day with him. That is a memory I hope to still carry with me when I’m 95.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: that's what they say
I like wine, too
I’m a big fan of UNCORKED, Mark Fisher’s most excellent wine blog here at the DDN.
Mark educates readers every day about wine. Good wine. Very good wine.
Have you ever had the occasion to visit a wineshop and be overwhelmed by the selection? Where does one start? If you don’t know what you are looking for it can be a daunting task.
You can pull out your laptop and check out Mark’s wine blog. Or, you can whip out your handy dandy pocket wine guide. Two excellent pocket wine guides were just published this week.
Micheal Broadbent’s Pocket Vintage Wine Companion (Harcourt) is an updated version of Broadbent’s classic guide to vintage wines. Broadbent became a Master of Wine back in 1960. The man knows his way around a goblet.
This new guide has hundreds of new wine tasting notes to help you locate the wines that you desire.
Another excellent new wine guide is Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Guide 2008 (Harcourt).
Clarke, like Broadbent, is another English wine expert. His handy guide fits right in your pocket. It lists wines by grape type, winery, producer, and region in alphabetical order for quick reference as you peruse the wine aisles.
No more whining that you can’t find exactly what you want!
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: secret passions
some cookbooks that might make lovely gifts
Here are a couple of new cookbooks that might delight that gourmet chef that you know:
DOLCE ITALIANO- Desserts From the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma (Norton) offers decadently scrumptious recipes for pastries and sweets concocted in the kitchens of New York City’s Babbo restaurant.
Divine photos of some of these treats had this reviewer’s mouth watering. Learn how to prepare Ginger Honey Gelato, Ricotta Pound Cake, Easter Egg Bread, and nuvole di miele or Honey Clouds.
Or perhaps you are looking for recipes with an Asian influence?
ASIAN FLAVORS OF JEAN-GEORGES by Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Broadway) is one of the most gorgeous cookbooks I have seen recently. Jean-Georges is the master of fusion cuisine. These imaginative recipes will astonish your guests:
Black sea bass with fragrant coconut juice-charred sirloin with soy, garlic and coriander-chicken buns-coconut sorbet. Delectable recipes. Savory photography. This cookbook is sure to please that gourmet chef who loves to cook up something totally unique.
“T is the season. Hang up the mistletoe. Smooch the cook.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: secret passions
Jenna Bush describes her dad
Jenna Bush is one of George and Laura Bush’s twin daughters. She is currently on a book tour that took her through Dayton recently. She is hitting all the book publicity hot spots including the talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. Here is an account of what happened on the show this week from the Associated Press:
Jenna Bush Calls Parents on ‘Ellen’ Show
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 7:51 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) — Jenna Bush, phone home. The first daughter appeared nervous when Ellen DeGeneres asked her to call her parents during a taping of DeGeneres’ talk show Tuesday. The show aired Wednesday. ”They’re going to kill me,” the 26-year-old told DeGeneres. ”I’m going to be in so much trouble.”
”No, they’re going to be thrilled,” DeGeneres said. ”Why wouldn’t they want to say `hi’ to everybody and say Merry Christmas?”
”They may have wanted some warning,” responded Bush, who was on ”The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to promote her new book, ”Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope.”
All was well, though, when she reached her parents on speakerphone.
”I’m just sitting here with daddy,” Laura Bush told her daughter, to which DeGeneres chimed in: ”Oh hey! It’s Ellen. I wanted to say hi to daddy.”
So the president got on the line: ”How’s my little girl doing?”
”Oh, she’s great. She’s scared she’s going to get in trouble because I just said, `Is it easy to just pick up the phone and call your dad anytime?”’ DeGeneres said. ”And now she’s scared she’s not going to get any Christmas presents.”
Bush said he wasn’t angry.
”I do want to say Merry Christmas to your audience, and I want to tell my little girl I love her,” the president said.
”I love you too, Dad,” Jenna responded.
I interviewed Jenna Bush the other day. I had the opportunity to ask her about her dad. This is what she had to say about him:
Vick Mickunas: Your dad is in a position where he….
Jenna Bush: She says one more question. Sorry.
Vick Mickunas: Where he gets a lot of grief and flack…
Jenna Bush: Yeah. Yeah.
Vick Mickunas: You know him better than just about anybody. In a brief, quick answer, what would you say about him?
Jenna Bush: I think he’s obviously a really great dad. I do know him in different ways than other people. Know him because anybody that’s in the public view like that-everybody sees him as their president or as a public figure and I know him personally.
You know he’s really a loving father and he puts his family first which I think shows a lot. You know, I hope to be a mother like that; when ever I have children.
I think he’s really smart. He loves to read.
Since I was a little girl he and my mom write to us every single night. As an elementary school teacher I’m so grateful for the opportunities they gave us by educating us early and showing us the importance of reading and literature.
He’s just a really, really great guy. But not everybody can always see that because he’s in a different position but if you ever got to know him you would know how wonderful he is.”
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: that's what they say
the dumbing down of AMERICA
I read lots of galleys; advance copies of upcoming books. I’m reading one at the moment that I’m finding profoundly disturbing. The Age of American Unreason (Pantheon Books-February 12) by Susan Jacoby is an analysis of what she perceives to be currents of anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism that are sweeping across American life.
Jacoby asserts that “the fundamental issue in the 2008 campaign ought not to be the lies politicians have told but the ignorance of a credulous public (and its elected representatives) unable to distinguish between truths and falsehoods about issues ranging from the war in Iraq to America’s broken health care system.”
She cites some numbing statistics to support her thesis:
Children under six spend 2 hours a day watching TV or videos but are read to by their parents for only 40 minutes.
Adults watch TV seven hours a day, and over 40 percent look at “whatever’s on.”
More than half of Americans reject any form of evolution-even guided by God.
Two-thirds of Americans between 18 and 24 cannot find Iraq on a map.
Americans who get their news from the Web are almost as likely to fail international geography tests as are those who are computer illiterate.
Only about half of adults read a single book in the course of a year.
One in four Americans believe the Constitution established Christianity as the official religion.
Do any of these statistics bother you?
Jacoby writes that “it remains to be seen as the current presidential campaign unfolds, whether Americans are willing to consider what the flight from reason has cost us as a people and whether any candidate has the will or the courage to talk about ignorance as a political issue affecting everything from scientific research to decisions about war and peace.”
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
when Hillary attacks
Polling in Iowa over the weekend is showing that Barack Obama has pulled ahead of Hillary Clinton there as the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination heats up heading into the January Iowa caucuses.
Obama has finally donned his boxing gloves and he is starting to counterpunch Hillary Clinton with verbal jabs and a new website called HILLARY ATTACKS. Click on the link to check it out. Obama states his purpose for the site: “As her lead in the polls shrinks, Senator Clinton’s flagging campaign grows more desperate each day. This web site will chronicle and rebut the increasingly desperate attacks and accusations being produced by the Clinton campaign.” OUCH!
Ah, this warms my heart. This is the fun part. That frozen Iowa mud can really sting when you fling it about in December! Hillary Clinton has been dishing it out by the shovelful and Barack Obama had not fought back until now. Yay!
Perhaps things will escalate. Frozen mudpies are one thing. In Iowa there is a plentiful supply of steaming cowpies. Oh joy!
Meanwhile, the Republican candidates in Iowa are attempting to wrestle unlikely frontrunner Mike Huckabee back into the slop with the rest of them. Ah, politics!
As these determined political animals savage one another bystanders need to be careful. Don’t stand too close. And if you do,be prepared to duck.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: politicked
a novel idea
Last summer I had the pleasure of meeting Paul Dickson, raconteur. baseball esthete, and most prolific of authors. He was in Yellow Springs for the Antioch Writers’ Workshop. We have since stayed in touch.
Today Paul sent me a rather thought-provoking missive. See for yourself- a blogger wrote this about Paul:
Sparrownauts must read the book paul dickson has written about sputnik even if you read no others. paul dickson is our everyman. he does not pretend to be a scientist or an analyst or even a professor talking down to his audience.paul dickson writes in a style that makes the reader fancy that he and his wife would make pleasant dinner companions. paul dickson would be the ideal test case for being a virtual dinner guest or a virtual passenger, now that cams and microphones and speakers give the illusion of remote telepresence.
(Paul writes) Ok here is my idea prompted by this kind blogger we offer writers and other odd folks a system whereby we offer ourselves for virtual appearances at dinner parties, book clubs, long plane rides. etc. with the gold standard being the dinner party. We dress appropriately and appear at the proper location such as the kitchen table for informal events. The host has an appropriate meal sent in and picks up the tab price of an acceptable libation. It could be done through publisher, agent or on one’s own and the equipment needed would be minimal (my new acer laptop has a video camera built in..) There would be a pecking order—John Grisham would cost a lot more than say, me—but the bragging rights to the opulent purchasers of these dinner companions would be considerable. (“As I told Grisham last Saturday my dinner party.”) Of course spouses / friends of writer would be invited and for a small additional fee would agree to get into a minor literary disagreement which they allow the host to settle. This could be first accomplished with a flat screen monitor propped up in a chair, but the speed at which things are going the author could soon appear as a hologram. Authors with a sense of their own mortality could inventory dinner appearances for post mortem affairs bringing major income to their heirs, Imagine being able to offer dinner with George Plimpton or Norman Mailer. Or you could get fine actors to play famous people or couples—Dinner with Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost or Edith Piaf and Hank Williams or Louisa May Alcott and H. L. Mencken.
This occasioned this response from an old friend and fellow writer:
You could go two directions with this. Remember the
old Steve Allen show (which was a rip off of Van
Loon’s Lives) which had Steve and Jayne interviewing
famous historical figures paired in unlikely
groups—-U S Grant and Queen Elizabeth I.
Or, my favorite, you could have holograms of real
authors and their wives show up as they really behave
at real dinner parties—-half drunk, argumentative,
making a pass at the host or his wife. The most
interesting literary moment of my life was watching
Hemingway and McKinley Kantor ebb and flow out of an
argumentative alcoholic binge while on stage at
Manatee Jurnior College’s first annual Florida’s
author symposium. John D. MacDonald was the third man
on the platform and manfully kept up a dialogue on the
craft of writing while the two greats either dozed on
the edge of their chairs or blackguarded each other
when awake. The head of the English Department
entered the priesthood, I heard later. If you could
find some way to have the holograms break some china
on the way out, it would be perfect.
The memory of that sunny episode in Sarasota
confirmed my determination to live the writer’s life
and it has sustained me during my darker moments.
One line suffices, “If you sh*t like you write
dialogue….,”Hemingway started to say to Kantor and
then trailed off. I’ve been writing the snapper to
that for the last fifty years.
It was great to see you and Nancy in such fine
form.
hang by your thumbs, James Srodes
Best Paul Dickson.
What do you think of that?
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: what do you think?
“potent pottery” for 500, Alex
Fans of the TV quiz show JEOPARDY expect recurring answer categories like POTENT POTABLES and POTPOURRI. If the program had a category for POTTERY one of the first answers I would expect would be:
FINE ART POTTERY FROM CINCINNATI
And the question is: what is ROOKWOOD ?.
Devotees of ROOKWOOD must check out a new book; Rookwood and the American Indian: Masterpieces of American Art Pottery from the James J. Gardner Collection(Ohio University Press).
The pottery is quite lovely. The story behind it is just as stunning.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | | Categories: secret passions
