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 > 2008 > June
June 2008
Amazon.com slashes price on Kindle
Amazon.com sells more books than anybody. So when Amazon makes a move I pay attention.
The Amazon Kindle, their much ballyhooed electronic reading device was rolled out late last year at a price of 399 dollars. Initially, Amazon could not keep up with demand. The unit was back-ordered for a bit until supplies were ramped up enough to meet the demand.
How many Kindles has Amazon sold? That is hard to say. That information is confidential. The announcement today that Amazon is discounting the price on the Kindle by 10% seems to indicate that sales have slowed. Now you can buy one for only 359 dollars.
The economy is tightening up. Some consumers are choosing between 100 gallons of gasoline or a Kindle. Amazon must have a stack of Kindles to unload so they lowered the price? To check out the Kindle device click here.
Vick Mickunas
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The Spies of Warsaw
“The Spies of Warsaw.” by Alan Furst, (Random House, 266 pages, $25).
Warsaw, Poland in 1937 is a wasps’ nest of espionage. The city is infested with secret agents; German spies, Soviet spies, Polish spies, and French spies.
The German war machine is gearing up to indulge Adolph Hitler’s fantasy of dominating Europe. Joseph Stalin is busy purging enemies in his Soviet show trials. The French are fooling themselves, complacent in the delusion that they can somehow repel a German attack.
This is the setting for “The Spies of Warsaw,” the latest spy thriller from that master of the historical espionage genre, Alan Furst. Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier is the military attache’ serving at the French embassy in Warsaw. He is also spymaster for a network of spies that is smuggling German military secrets out of Germany to his French Army bosses in Paris.
Mercier has an informant inside a German tank factory. This fellow is smuggling documents to Warsaw on a regular basis. There are many eyes watching out for suspicious activity on all sides. Mercier is forced to intercede on behalf of this informant and in so doing his identity is breached to some Nazi thugs.
This causes problems when Mercier is dispatched to Germany on spy missions. Subterfuge, false identities, clandestine meetings, and close calls ratchet up the tension as Mercier’s spycraft braves the perils of Hitler’s Third Reich.
Furst made a few false starts as a novelist before he published his first historical espionage novel “Night Soldiers” in 1988. Over the course of ten books he has carved out a niche as one of the great practitioners of this form. One feels transported to another era when reading Furst. It is as if he lives inside this period - the details are exacting, his characters possess an uncanny authenticity.
Mercier is devoted to the cause but this dashing secret agent also makes time for love. He falls for a beautiful lawyer who works in Warsaw for the League of Nations. They travel together on a train to Belgrade and their passion leaves the railroad tracks sizzling.
These books are atmospheric. Furst sets a tone that moves us back through time: “Now the winter snow began to fall. At night, it melted into golden droplets on the Ujazdowska gas lamps and, by morning, turned the street white and silent. Out in the countryside, the first paw prints of wolves were seen near the villages.”
Furst’s readers should know their history. We understand what happens next. Human wolves were circling, waiting to attack Poland and Czechoslovakia. The French paid scant heed to the information their spies were delivering. Europe was ripe for the plucking. The torment would soon begin.
Meanwhile, good Germans carried on with their lives. Mercier speaks to his daughter about them. “That’s the worst part - they pretend not to notice. It’s all that ‘Still, sprach durch die Blume.’”
“Which means?”
” ’ Hush, speak through a flower.’ Don’t say anything about the government unless you praise it.”
“The Spies of Warsaw” will deliver shivers of nervous pleasure.
Vick Mickunas
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an interview with Tony Horwitz
Tony Horwitz is one my favorite writers. In books like CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC and BLUE LATITUDES he has tracked the broad arc of history and traced the steps of those who have forged it.
He is also one of my favorite authors to interview. I’m always excited when he has a new book out because it presents an opportunity to speak to him about it. Last winter I spoke to Geraldine Brooks, another gifted writer who just happens to be married to Horwitz. I asked her what Tony was working on and she told me that his book A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE - Rediscovering the New World (Henry Holt) would be published in the spring. I kept my ears open until…
Voila! The book was published recently.I interviewed Tony on WYSO Public Radio in Yellow Springs. If you missed it you can still listen to it by clicking here.
Vick Mickunas
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the trees were screaming
Bulldozers clanked into position like some demonic tank corps. The sounds of crushing and tearing soon followed. Chainsaws buzzed terror throughout the forest. Sleeping owls had little time to escape as their homes came crashing down.
The woods behind my place has always been a peaceful spot. Coyotes felt safe there. It was a paradise for birds. Not any more. That ended today. Ancient oaks were ripped asunder, smashing down upon an earth which once nurtured them. Red pine, black cherry, osage orange, and black walnut were slaughtered faster than you can define “carbon footprint.”
These venerable giants had endured a century of flood and drought, blizzards and lightning only to succumb to the vicious assault of machines and a few gallons of gasoline. There was no warning - no notice. I assumed that they were tree poachers. Wrong.
What a lousy time to be building more houses? There’s a glut of unsold real estate - a mortgage crisis. Credit is tight. Who are these fools? These butchers? They are property owners. They do what they please. It’s a free country, right? Getting more costly with each day that passes.
Today it rained - the sky was crying.
Vick Mickunas
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Fleeced by Dick Morris
Stop the presses! Dick Morris, the former friend and confidante of Bill Clinton has a new book. It came out this week. It’s called Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, And Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us … and What to Do About It. It is already an instant #1 bestseller on Amazon.com.
Doesn’t it sound interesting? Don’t you really want to read it? I’ll pass. The title says it all. Call it truth in advertising - I’m willing to bet that is exactly how you’ll feel after you finish reading it: fleeced, by none other that Dick Morris.
Ka-ching! Ka-ching! That’s the sound of Dick Morris laughing all the way to the bank. Check your checkbooks.
Did you feel that slight bump? Feel for your wallets. They might be a bit lighter after this “author” gets done with you.
Ka-ching! The fleecing has begun…
Vick Mickunas
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stuff white people like
Are you white? Me too. I just found the perfect book for white people and for people who want to try to understand us. Maybe. Perhaps. Who knows?
It’s The Definitive Guide to Stuff White People Like - the Unique Taste of Millions (Random House) by Christian Lander.
Lander is the creator of the website Stuff White People Like. If you go to the website you’ll see some rather interesting stuff about white people. Here’s an example:
“Naturally, white people do not get offended by statements directed at white people. In fact, they don’t even have a problem making offensive statements about other white people (ask a white person about “flyover states”). As a rule, white people strongly prefer to get offended on behalf of other people.
It is also valuable to know that white people spend a significant portion of their time preparing for the moment when they will be offended. They read magazines, books, and watch documentaries all in hopes that one day they will encounter a person who will say something offensive. When this happens, they can leap into action with quotes, statistics, and historical examples. Once they have finished lecturing another white person about how it’s wrong to use the term “black” instead of “African-American,” they can sit back and relax in the knowledge that they have made a difference.
White people also get excited at the opportunity to be offended at things that are sexist and/or homophobic. Both cases offering ample opportunities for lectures, complaints, graduate classes, lengthy discussions and workshops. All of which do an excellent job of raising awareness among white people who hope to change their status from “not racist” to “super not racist.”
Another thing worth noting is that the threshold for being offended is a very important tool for judging and ranking white people. Missing an opportunity to be outraged is like missing a reference to Derrida-it’s social death.
If you ever need to make a white person feel indebted to you, wait for them to mention a book, film, or television show that features a character who is the same race as you, then say “the representation of
Ow!! The book will be out on July 1….is that all white with you….? How white are you? I flunked the quiz. I’m white. Here are some of the questions that got me:
Do you sip free trade organic coffee?
Do you read the New York Times or listen to NPR or read the Times while listening?
Do you own a vintage T-shirt?
Do you only drink organic milk?
Are you voting for Obama?
Did you rebel against your parents?
Do you own more echinacea than Tylenol?
Have a favorite wine region or microbrewery?
Have you ever had a subscription to the New Yorker?
Are you a DJ or have you ever been in love with one?
Have you attended a writer’s workshop?
Are you starting to get the idea? Of course you don’t have to be white to feel white, right?
In my defense: my vintage T-shirts were bought new, thank you!
Vick Mickunas
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hangin’ out with Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman and his co-author Daniel Lenihan were in Dayton recently - that reminded me of an evening I spent with them 5 years ago in Chicago.
I was there for Book Expo. A friend of mine asked if I wanted to go with him to a book signing that Hackman and Lenihan were having that evening at a bookstore downtown. We went to the Drake Hotel and met the the authors out front, then walked over to the bookstore with them.
There was a huge crowd waiting to get Gene Hackman’s autograph. My friend got me a prime seat right next to the signing area. I watched for hours as this famous Hollywood star interacted with his fans. He was extremely patient and pleasant even with the mob of autograph collectors who had stacks of posters and photos for him to sign. He autographed everything with a smile.
An off-duty Chicago cop was there providing security. I sat there quietly observing. When the signing was finally over the police officer came over to me and said: “Hey, I enjoyed working with you!”
I was puzzled by his statement. I said: “What do you mean?” The cop looked at me and said: “You’re Gene Hackman’s bodyguard, right?”
After I got done laughing I explained that I was merely a spectator. He said: “Well, I just assumed by your demeanor and body language that you were his security detail.”
His comments got me to thinking and as we returned to the Drake with Gene Hackman I decided, hey, if I look like a bodyguard then I might as well pretend that I am one!
It was a lovely June evening in Chicago. As I walked behind Hackman through the throngs of people crowding the sidewalks on a Friday I stood tall and strode with the purposeful authority that I imagined a security guard would present as he protected a famous client.
It was really fascinating because I could see people as they approached us and their double takes whenever somebody recognized him. Women in particular would gasp and say to their friends: “was that?! No, it couldn’t be!?”
When we got to the Drake Hackman invited us into the bar for drinks. Hackman’s wife was with us, along with his co-author, his editor, and my friend from Chicago. We talked books for over an hour as the place buzzed with excitement - the patrons of the establishment were quite aware of Hackman’s presence there.
I kept my mouth shut - just drinking it all in. What an experience! At one point they were discussing Cormac McCarthy - Hackman is well read - he turned to me and asked me what I thought of “the trilogy?” All I could do was look at him. Speechless I was- astonished - and delighted to be there on that warm evening in Chicago at the bar of the Drake Hotel.
Vick Mickunas
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remembering George Carlin
The comedian George Carlin has died. Here’s an obit from the New York Times:
George Carlin, 71, Irreverent Standup Comedian
By MEL WATKINS
George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.
The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas.
Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center in November. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”
Mr. Carlin began his standup comedy act in the late 1950s and made his first television solo guest appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1965. At that time, he was primarily known for his clever wordplay and reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.
But from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet. “The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight’s forecast … dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning.”
Mr. Carlin released his first comedy album, “Take-Offs and Put-Ons,” to rave reviews in 1967. He also dabbled in acting, winning a recurring part as Marlo Thomas’ theatrical agent in the sitcom “That Girl” (1966-67) and a supporting role in the movie “With Six You Get Egg-Roll,” released in 1968.
By the end of the decade, he was one of America’s best known comedians. He made more than 80 major television appearances during that time, including the Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show; he was also regularly featured at major nightclubs in New York and Las Vegas.
That early success and celebrity, however, was as dinky and hollow as a gratuitous pratfall to Mr. Carlin. “I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and in some cases associated with, and whose point of view I shared,” he recalled later, as quoted in the book “Going Too Far” by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. “I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie.”
In 1970, Mr. Carlin discarded his suit, tie, and clean-cut image as well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him to the top. Mr. Carlin reinvented himself, emerging with a beard, long hair, jeans and a routine that, according to one critic, was steeped in “drugs and bawdy language.” There was an immediate backlash. The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas terminated his three-year contract, and, months later, he was advised to leave town when an angry mob threatened him at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. Afterward, he temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges where he found a younger, hipper audience that was more attuned to both his new image and his material.
By 1972, when he released his second album, “FM & AM,” his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the “AM” side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the “FM” side. Among the more controversial cuts was a routine euphemistically entitled “Shoot,” in which Mr. Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement. The bit was part of the comic’s longer routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which appeared on his third album “Class Clown,” also released in 1972.
“There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time ‘ass’ is all right on television,” Mr. Carlin noted in his introduction to the then controversial monologue. “You can say, well, ‘You’ve made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.’ You can use ass in a religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on one — perfectly all right.”
The material seems innocuous by today’s standards, but it caused an uproar when broadcast on the New York radio station WBAI in the early ’70s. The station was censured and fined by the FCC. And in 1978, their ruling was supported by the Supreme Court, which Time magazine reported, “upheld an FCC ban on ‘offensive material’ during hours when children are in the audience.” Mr. Carlin refused to drop the bit and was arrested several times after reciting it on stage.
By the mid-’70s, like his comic predecessor Lenny Bruce and the fast-rising Richard Pryor, Mr. Carlin had emerged as a cultural renegade. In addition to his irreverent jests about religion and politics, he openly talked about the use of drugs, including acid and peyote, and said that he kicked cocaine not for moral or legal reasons but after he found “far more pain in the deal than pleasure.” But the edgier, more biting comedy he developed during this period, along with his candid admission of drug use, cemented his reputation as the “comic voice of the counterculture.”
Mr. Carlin released a half dozen comedy albums during the ’70s, including the million-record sellers “Class Clown,” “Occupation: Foole” (1973) and “An Evening With Wally Lando” (1975). He was chosen to host the first episode of the late-night comedy show “Saturday Night Live” in 1975. And two years later, he found the perfect platform for his brand of acerbic, cerebral, sometimes off-color standup humor in the fledgling, less restricted world of cable television. By 1977, when his first HBO comedy special, “George Carlin at USC” was aired, he was recognized as one of the era’s most influential comedians. He also become a best-selling author of books that expanded on his comedy routines, including “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?,” which was published by Hyperion in 2004.
Pursuing a Dream
Mr. Carlin was born in New York City in 1937. “I grew up in New York wanting to be like those funny men in the movies and on the radio,” he said. “My grandfather, mother and father were gifted verbally, and my mother passed that along to me. She always made sure I was conscious of language and words.”
He quit high school to join the Air Force in the mid-’50s and, while stationed in Shreveport, La., worked as a radio disc jockey. Discharged in 1957, he set out to pursue his boyhood dream of becoming an actor and comic. He moved to Boston where he met and teamed up with Jack Burns, a newscaster and comedian. The team worked on radio stations in Boston, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles, and performed in clubs throughout the country during the late ’50s.
After attracting the attention of the comedian Mort Sahl, who dubbed them “a duo of hip wits,” they appeared as guests on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar. Still, the Carlin-Burns team was only moderately successful, and, in 1960, Mr. Carlin struck out on his own.
During a career that spanned five decades, he emerged as one of the most durable, productive and versatile comedians of his era. He evolved from Jerry Seinfeld-like whimsy and a buttoned-down decorum in the ’60s to counterculture icon in the ’70s. By the ’80s, he was known as a scathing social critic who could artfully wring laughs from a list of oxymorons that ranged from “jumbo shrimp” to “military intelligence.” And in the 1990s and into the 21st century the balding but still pony-tailed comic prowled the stage — eyes ablaze and bristling with intensity — as the circuit’s most splenetic curmudgeon.
During his live 1996 HBO special, “Back in Town,” he raged over the shallowness of the ’90s “me first” culture — mocking the infatuation with camcorders, hyphenated names, sneakers with lights on them, and lambasting white guys over 10 years old who wear their baseball hats backwards. Baby boomers, “who went from ‘do your thing’ to ‘just say no’ …from cocaine to Rogaine,” and pro life advocates (“How come when it’s us it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken it’s an omelet?”), were some of his prime targets. In the years following his 1977 cable debut, Mr. Carlin was nominated for a half dozen Grammy awards and received CableAces awards for best stand-up comedy special for “George Carlin: Doin’ It Again (1990) and “George Carlin: Jammin’ ” (1992). He also won his second Grammy for the album “Jammin” in 1994.
Personal Struggles
During the course of his career, Mr. Carlin overcame numerous personal trials. His early arrests for obscenity (all of which were dismissed) and struggle to overcome his self-described “heavy drug use” were the most publicized. But in the ’80s he also weathered serious tax problems, a heart attack and two open heart surgeries.
In December 2004 he entered a rehabilitation center to address his addictions to Vicodin and red wine. Mr. Carlin had a well-chronicled cocaine problem in his 30s, and though he was able to taper his cocaine use on his own, he said, he continued to abuse alcohol and also became addicted to Vicodin. He entered rehab at the end of that year, then took two months off before continuing his comedy tours.
“Standup is the centerpiece of my life, my business, my art, my survival and my way of being,” Mr. Carlin once told an interviewer. “This is my art, to interpret the world.” But, while it always took center stage in his career, Mr. Carlin did not restrict himself to the comedy stage. He frequently indulged his childhood fantasy of becoming a movie star. Among his later credits were supporting parts in “Car Wash” (1976), “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), and “Dogma” (1999).
His 1997 book, “Brain Droppings,” became an instant best seller. And among several continuing TV roles, he starred in the Fox sitcom “The George Carlin Show,” which aired for one season. “That was an experiment on my part to see if there might be a way I could fit into the corporate entertainment structure,” he said after the show was canceled in 1994. “And I don’t,” he added.
Despite the longevity of his career and his problematic personal life, Mr. Carlin remained one of the most original and productive comedians in show business. “It’s his lifelong affection for language and passion for truth that continue to fuel his performances,” a critic observed of the comedian when he was in his mid-60s. And Chris Albrecht, an HBO executive, said, “He is as prolific a comedian as I have witnessed.”
Mr. Carlin is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law, Bob McCall, brother, Patrick Carlin and sister-in-law, Marlene Carlin. His first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, died in 1997.
Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”
Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.”
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when suspense and thrills are Child’s play
“Nothing to Lose,” by Lee Child, (Delacorte Press, 407 pages, $27)
Jack Reacher is a man with few attachments: he has no residence, no partner, no job. Lee Child’s fictional creation is a wanderer. He travels light, very light. “Back when he smoked he might have lit a cigarette to pass the time. But he didn’t smoke anymore. Smoking implied carrying at least a pack and a book of matches, and Reacher had long ago quit carrying things he didn’t need.”
“There was nothing in his pockets except paper money and an expired passport and an ATM card and a clip-together toothbrush. There was nothing waiting for him anywhere else, either. No storage unit in a distant city, nothing stashed with friends. He owned the things in his pockets and the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet. That was all, and that was enough.”
“Nothing to Lose” is Child’s 12th book in this popular series. As the story begins Reacher is going from Maine to San Diego, hitching rides, seeing the countryside. A salesman drops him off in eastern Colorado near the towns of Hope and Despair. Reacher is curious. He checks out Hope. Then he heads over to Despair. He doesn’t receive a warm welcome there. They bust him for vagrancy.
He finds himself dumped at the border between the two towns. There he encounters Vaughan, a policewoman from Hope. There are some sparks that fly between Reacher and Vaughan. Some women find Reacher quite attractive. He’s a great big fellow without any apparent strings — just passing through.
A retired military police officer, Reacher can be a magnet for violence. His suspicions are aroused by this hostile reception and banishment feels irresistible. He decides to sniff around.
He finds that Despair is a company town. A Mr. Thurman owns everything there. He operates an immense metal recycling operation. He’s also the mayor and the preacher at the only church in town. The citizens seem to have a blind devotion to Thurman that verges on cult-like.
Reacher recruits Officer Vaughan to help him investigate. She tries to understand what motivates Reacher. He says “I have to be somewhere, doing something” and Reacher’s notion of “doing something” frequently involves mopping the floor with the luckless bad guys who get in his way.
He analyzes stressful situations with a mathematical precision. “He hated knives. He would have preferred it if the guy had pulled a pair of six-shooters. Guns can miss.” As this thug circles him, brandishing switchblades, Reacher calmly evaluates the threat. “Knives didn’t miss. If they touched you they cut you.”
“Nothing to Lose” leaves readers teetering on the brink of Despair with an apocalyptic climax that Reacher engineers with cool intellect and sheer force. Lee Child navigates a literary tightrope in thrilling fashion.
Fans of this series know that when the dust settles Reacher will vanish again just as quickly as he has appeared. We’ll wait eagerly for the next book, “Gone Tomorrow.”
Vick Mickunas
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remembering Tasha Tudor
One of my favorite parts of the New York Times is the obituary section. Every day I find out about somebody who has passed away after leading an amazing life. Here’s a prime example: I had never heard of Tasha Tudor but I had seen her work. After reading her obit in the Times I am awed and amazed that such a person ever existed. I wish that I had known her. Here it is:
Tasha Tudor, Children’s Book Illustrator, Dies at 92
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
“Tasha Tudor, a children’s illustrator whose pastel watercolors and delicately penciled lines depicted an idyllic, old-fashioned vision of the 19th-century way of life she famously pursued — including weaving, spinning, gathering eggs and milking goats — died on Wednesday at her home in Marlboro, Vt.
She was 92, if one counts only the life that began on Aug. 28, 1915. Ms. Tudor frequently said that she was the reincarnation of a sea captain’s wife who lived from 1800 to 1840 or 1842, and that it was this earlier life she was replicating by living so ardently in the past.
Her son Seth confirmed the death. He suggested that his mother’s more colorful remarks might be taken with a pinch of salt.
A cottage industry grew out of Ms. Tudor’s art, which has illustrated nearly 100 books. The family sells greeting cards, prints, plates, aprons, dolls, quilts and more, all in a sentimental, rustic, but still refined style resembling that of Beatrix Potter.
In her promotion of such a definitive lifestyle, Ms. Tudor has been called a 19th-century Martha Stewart. Books, videotapes, magazine articles and television shows illuminated her gardening and housekeeping ideas.
For 70 years her illustrations elicited wide admiration: The New York Times in 1941 said her pictures “have the same fragile beauty of early spring evenings.”
Her drawings, particularly the early ones, often illustrated the almost equally memorable stories she herself wrote. Some details: Sparrow Post, a postal service for dolls with delivery by birds. Birthday parties featuring flotillas of cakes with lighted candles. Mouse Mills catalogs, for ordering dolls clothes made by mice, who take buttons for pay.
The Catholic Library World said in 1971 that Ms. Tudor shed “a special ray of sunshine” with pictures that carry “the imagination of children into history, into the human heart, into the joys of family life, into love of friendship itself.”
Two of Ms. Tudor’s books were named Caldecott Honor Books: “Mother Goose” (1944) and “1 Is One” (1956). Ms. Tudor was just awarded the Regina Medal by the Catholic Library Association.
But it was her uncompromising immersion in another, less comfortable century that most fascinated people. She wore kerchiefs, hand-knitted sweaters, fitted bodices and flowing skirts, and often went barefoot. She reared her four children in a home without electricity or running water until her youngest turned 5. She raised her own farm animals; turned flax she had grown into clothing; and lived by homespun wisdom: sow root crops on a waning moon, above-ground plants on a waxing one.
“It is healthful to sleep in a featherbed with your nose pointing north,” she said in an interview with The Times in 1977.
Starling Burgess, who later legally changed both her names to Tasha Tudor, was born in Boston to well-connected but not wealthy parents. Her mother, Rosamond Tudor, was a portrait painter, and her father, William Starling Burgess, was a yacht and airplane designer who collaborated with Buckminster Fuller.
Ms. Tudor could not remember a time when she did not draw pictures or make little books. She was originally nicknamed Natasha by her father, after Tolstoy’s heroine in “War and Peace.” This was shortened to Tasha. After her parents divorced when she was 9, Ms. Tudor adopted her mother’s last name.
In an autobiography she wrote in 1951, Ms. Tudor said she did not start school until she was 9, although other biographies say she began as early as 7. She attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for a year, but said she learned painting from her mother. Her art was often framed by ornate borders like those from a medieval manuscript, but more whimsical.
Partly to protect her from Jazz Age Greenwich Village, where her mother had moved, Ms. Tudor was sent to live with a couple in Connecticut, drama enthusiasts who included children in the plays they put on. She soon developed a love of times past and things rural, going to auctions to buy antique clothing before she was 10. At 15 she used money she had made teaching nursery school to buy her first cow.
In 1938 she married Thomas Leighton McCready Jr., who was in the real estate business. A fiddler played the wedding march. Mr. McCready encouraged his bride to put together a folio of pictures and seek publishers. She was repeatedly turned down before her first published book, “Pumpkin Moonshine” (1938), was accepted by Oxford University Press. It was the start of a flood, many still in print.
Ms. Tudor’s favorite of all her books was “Corgiville Fair,” one of several she wrote about the Welsh corgi dogs she kept as pets, sometimes 13 or 14 at once. Her 1963 illustrated version of “The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, tells of children enraptured by a mysterious garden. The volume of Clement C. Moore’s “Night Before Christmas” that she illustrated remains popular.
She rebuked those who said she must be enthralled with her own creativity.
“That’s nonsense,” she said. “I’m a commercial artist, and I’ve done my books because I needed to earn my living.”
She and her husband moved to a 19th-century farmhouse in New Hampshire that lacked electricity and running water, but did have 17 rooms and 450 acres. Ms. Tudor painted in the kitchen, in between baking bread and washing dishes. She created a dollhouse with a cast of characters, two of whom were married in a ceremony covered by Life magazine.
Ms. Tudor was divorced from Mr. McCready, who later died, and from a second husband, Allan John Woods. In 1972 she sold the New Hampshire farm and moved onto her property near her son Seth in Marlboro.
In addition to Seth, Ms. Tudor is survived by her daughters Bethany Tudor of West Brattleboro, Vt., and Efner Tudor Holmes of Contoocook, N.H.; another son, Thomas, of Fairfax, Va.; eight grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and her half-sister, Ann Hopps of Camden, Me.
Ms. Tudor, who could play the dulcimer and handle a gun, once promised a reporter for The Times that she could find a four-leaf clover within five minutes and came back with a five-leaf one in four minutes. She kept a seven-leaf clover framed in her room.
She told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk in 1996 that it was her intention to go straight back to the 1830s after her death.
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where are the honey bees?
Yesterday I saw a honey bee. That was first one I have seen this year. Two years ago there was a hive of wild honey bees in my yard. I saw them all the time. In just two years they seem to have vanished in the area where I live. Should I be concerned? Should you be? Maybe so.
At the moment I’m reading A SPRING WITHOUT BEES - How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply (The Lyons Press) by Michael Schacker. Wow, what a depressing book.
The floods in the midwest are going to have an adverse impact on our food supply. Then there are the honey bees. I should say then there aren’t any honey bees. This should concern you.
Reading this book will help you to understand the extent of the problem and the shock that we might be feeling if this already dire situation gets even worse - Oh my - it is not good news.
Vick Mickunas
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remembering Joseph Mitchell
Joseph Mitchell was always a mystery. I never knew much about him. Then I interviewed the late Brendan Gill. Mitchell and Gill were longtime colleagues at the New Yorker Magazine. Mitchell and Gill are both gone now but I still remember what Gill told me about Mitchell.
Joseph Mitchell was a great observer of old New York. He moved to the City from North Carolina the day after the great Wall Street crash of 1929. He joined the staff of the New Yorker 8 years later and he was still there when he died in 1996. He was 87.
Mitchell wrote some incredible things over the years. Books like UP IN THE OLD HOTEL, MY EARS ARE BENT, and JOE GOULD’s SECRET.
He wrote great stuff for the New Yorker. The culture at the magazine was such that Mitchell was able to coast after he had established himself. For many years he came to work, went in his office, closed the door and “worked.” It wasn’t clear what he was working on? After putting out so much great stuff for so long Mitchell didn’t publish anything for many years - then he died.
Pantheon has published THE BOTTOM OF THE HARBOR to honor Mitchell on his 100th birthday this summer.
Remember the name: Joseph Mitchell. A wonderful writer. I keep hoping that whatever it was he was working on during those years will surface. This centennial re-issue was first published 50 years ago. It’s all about New York.
Vick Mickunas
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lighting a fire with Kindling
Have you seen the Amazon Kindle? It is a wireless reading device that Amazon.com introduced late last year. Amazon won’t say how many they have sold but it must be a lot? Right?
Amazon publishes hourly rankings of their best-selling books and they maintain a chart of the best-sellers that are being downloaded to their Kindle device. #5 on the list is:
How to Use the Amazon Kindle for Email & Other Cool Tricks: Read and Answer Email Anywhere, Anytime on the Amazing Amazon Kindle (The Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle) (Kindle Edition)by Stephen Windwalker.
The “Amazing Amazon Kindle”! Gee whiz, this Stephen Windwalker must be a huge fan of Amazon.com one might suppose? He is also the author of Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon’s Marketplace and Other Online Sites. Another book about Amazon. Amazing indeed!
He is also the author of The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing and Marketing Books, Articles and Other Content for the Amazon Kindle (Creating Your Own Success Story with New Technologies) (Kindle Edition) another Kindle only book.
Are we detecting a pattern here? Who is Stephen Windwalker? His books seem to be about Amazon.com. Does he work for them? This inquiring mind wants to know.
Vick Mickunas
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the Progressive Book Club
A new book club has just been created in this, the year of Obama. Here’s the story from the New York Times:
A Book Club Courts Liberals
By MOTOKO RICH
“The progressive movement has prided itself on its ability to get its messages out by harnessing the Internet, through organizations like MoveOn.org and blogs like Daily Kos or The Huffington Post.
But now a liberal-minded group is returning to an old-fashioned model: a book club.
Starting on Monday, the new Progressive Book Club is inviting readers to join and buy three books at $1 apiece in exchange for the obligation to buy four books over the next two years.
The brainchild of Elizabeth Wagley, a former fund-raiser and communications adviser for nonprofit groups including Doctors of the World, the Progressive Book Club is trying to update the paradigm of such familiar institutions as the Book-of-the-Month Club, as well as the 44-year-old Conservative Book Club.
Ms. Wagley said that she believed the new book club would fill a void for progressively minded readers. “The right has always understood the power of ideas, the power of books as legitimizers of ideas,” she said. “I see the opportunity with the book-club structure to create a powerful tool to showcase the ideas of the left.”
As with a classic book club, members of the new club will be offered a slate of books each month, reviewed and chosen by a panel that includes the novelists Michael Chabon, Erica Jong and Barbara Kingsolver; John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine; and Todd Gitlin, the author and a journalism and sociology professor at Columbia University.
The first lead selection is “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” by Steven Greenhouse, a reporter at The New York Times. Other offerings for June include “Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy” by Jeffrey Feldman, and “Mudbound,” a debut novel by Hillary Jordan. The club will also offer about 200 older titles like “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine and “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson.
The new book club, which is being financed mostly by individual investors, is entering the market at a time when the publishing industry is struggling and the book club segment in particular has come under significant pressure. Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate that owns the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Doubleday Book Club and the History Book Club, among others, last year reported severe losses in its American book clubs as membership plummeted.
In the early days of book clubs discounts were a large part of the appeal, but competition from online booksellers like Amazon.com has eliminated that advantage. And recommendations, once another draw, are now easily found on the Internet. “When we started we were bringing people information about books that they wouldn’t have heard about otherwise,” said Andy Schwarz, general manager of the Conservative Book Club, a sister company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books. “Now it’s much easier to get information and learn about books.”
Mr. Schwarz, who said the Conservative Book Club sells an average of 30,000 books a month and has a total of 90,000 members, added: “It’s getting harder to get new members. We’re holding steady, but we’re not growing as much as we’d like.”
Ms. Wagley said that it was not so much the number of members that mattered as the influence that the club’s selections could have on intellectual debate. The Conservative Book Club, she said, “has been able to shine a spotlight on the books that are in the club.” In doing so, she added, the ideas in those books have spread to “the universe of conservatives.”
Readers sympathetic to progressive causes can already learn about books on blogs or by reading reviews in newspapers or on any number of book-related Web sites. But Ms. Wagley said that the new book club would provide a central place for title recommendations and would promote books by smaller publishers that might have difficulty receiving attention elsewhere.
Michelle Berger, the Progressive Book Club’s chief operating and marketing officer and a 10-year veteran of Bertelsmann’s book clubs, said readers still wanted someone to “cut through the clutter” of titles. The new club, she said, would also improve on the old model by eliminating paper catalogs and offering a social networking component on its Web site, as well as the opportunity for members to form local book discussion groups.
Steven Waldman, a founder of Belief.net, a faith and spirituality Web site, and author of “Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America,” another June selection, said he was most excited by the possibility that club members would meet one another. With traditional book clubs “it was always sort of a fiction that you were in a club,” Mr. Waldman said. “It was just a marketing arrangement. You never met the other people in your club. Now you can meet them. I love the idea of people who are buying my book talking to each other.”
As with other book clubs, authors will receive royalties of 4 percent of the cover price for books sold for $1 apiece, and 8 percent of the cover price for books sold at regular club prices, which will be competitive with prices on Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble. Typically authors are paid about 15 percent of the hardcover price after they have paid off the cash advances they receive when they sign book contracts.
Margo Baldwin, publisher of Chelsea Green Publishing, which produces books about progressive politics and environmentally sustainable living, said authors may forgo some royalties on the book club sales, but they would enjoy promotion they might not otherwise receive.
To make buyers feel as if they are contributing to something more than book sales, club members can designate one of 33 organizations to receive $2 from any book that a member buys at regular club prices above $10. Participating organizations, which will also advertise the Progressive Book Club on their Web sites and help recruit members, include the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law; the Foundation for National Progress, which publishes Mother Jones magazine; and the Wellstone Action Fund.
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, publisher and founder of Kos Media, which publishes the Daily Kos blog and is one of the book club’s “alliance partners,” said he did not expect the club to generate much revenue for his company. “I’m not doing this for financial reasons,” he said. “I’m doing it for movement-building reasons.”
Some in the publishing industry questioned whether liberals need a specific book club. Voicing an oft-repeated maxim, David Rosenthal, publisher of Simon & Schuster, said, “One might say the entire book industry is largely a progressive book group.”
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the best book I have read this year
Every year I compile a list of my favorite books. Next January I’ll post my favorites from 2008 in both fiction and non-fiction. My favorite novel so far this year is The Lazarus Project (Riverhead) by Aleksandar Hemon. I spoke to Hemon recently about it. Our conversation aired on WYSO Public Radio in Yellow Springs.
If you missed it you can still hear the interview by clicking here.
(Photo by Velibor Bozovic)
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Goodnight Bush
There is quite an interesting article in today’s edition of the New York Times:
The Secret to Success in Publishing: Bash Bush, With Nods to a Classic
By JOANNE KAUFMAN
The manuscript — unsolicited and addressed simply to “Editor in Chief, Little, Brown” — arrived at its destination in a clear envelope, “which was very clever,” said Geoff Shandler, the Little, Brown editor in chief who received the package. “Without opening it, I could see some of the cover image they had designed.”
Such was Mr. Shandler’s introduction to “Goodnight Bush,” an unauthorized parody of the 1947 children’s bedtime classic “Goodnight Moon,” written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd.
For generations, weary parents have intoned: “Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon. Goodnight light, and the red balloon.” And who can forget the bowl of mush and the quiet old lady who endlessly whispers “hush”?
The cover of “Goodnight Bush” looks almost exactly like “Goodnight Moon — green and orange, with an image of a window and fireplace — and uses a similar rhyme scheme. But there the thematic similarities end.
The authors, Erich Origen and Gan Golan, set their story in “a situation room.” There is no bunny snuggling into bed, but rather George W. Bush, grinning and wearing a “Mission Accomplished” flight suit. Instead of three little bears sitting on chairs, there are “war profiteers giving three cheers.”
Subsequent pages tell of “A grand old party to war in a rush/And a quiet Dick Cheney whispering hush.” The vice president is illustrated seated in a rocking chair — with a shotgun in his lap and bunny slippers on his feet.
“I thought it was brilliant,” said Mr. Shandler, whose company also published the parody “Yiddish With Dick and Jane.” That book, from 2004, prompted the owner of the rights to the classic “Dick and Jane” primers to sue in 2005, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.
The publisher of “Goodnight Bush” is counting on the fair use doctrine, which allows limited amounts of copyrighted material to be used without permission. “Parody as fair use is a developing area of the law,” said Pamela Golinski, an entertainment lawyer in New York, “and as a result, whether a given parody merits the shield of the fair use doctrine is a complex question.”
A spokeswoman for HarperCollins, publisher of “Goodnight Moon,” said the company would have no comment on “Goodnight Bush.”
While the authors’ considerations were largely political, the publisher worried more about sales potential. At 48 pages, “Goodnight Bush” is the sort of short read that publishers fear will be quickly digested in stores and thus will not make it to the cash register.
“But this had so many brilliant gags,” Mr. Shandler said. “You could spend so much time looking page by page.”
For example, the mouse that flits about the pages of “Goodnight Moon” has been replaced by a tiny scurrying Osama bin Laden. At the beginning of the book, a pristine Constitution hangs on a wall; by book’s end, it is full of crayoned redactions.
An afterword to “Goodnight Bush” notes that the first lady, Laura Bush, placed “Goodnight Moon” first on her list of children’s books and that the president’s brother, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, called it one of his childhood favorites.”
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the latest from David Sedaris
“When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” by David Sedaris (Little, Brown, 323 pages, $26)
Our leading humorists tend to be keen observers of the human condition. David Sedaris has parlayed a lifetime of observation into a brilliant career as an essayist. Early success on public radio vaulted Sedaris into the limelight. Now his books top the best-seller lists. His appearances on the lecture circuit routinely sell out.
Sedaris spends most of his time these days in Europe. His essays appear in “The New Yorker” magazine and on “This American Life.” His last book, “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” topped The New York Times best-seller list. His latest, “When You are Engulfed in Flames,” went instantly to No. 1 at Amazon.com.
This new collection reveals a guy who has mellowed and matured. Still hilarious when he wants to be, he has broadened his palette here. These essays veer from quirky to downright serious as Sedaris faces his own mortality.
He is lucky and neurotic. “I’ve been around for nearly half a century, yet I’m afraid of everything and everyone. A child sits beside me on a plane and I make conversation, thinking how stupid I must sound. The downstairs neighbors invite me to a party and, after claiming that I have a previous engagement, I spend the entire evening confined to my bed, afraid to walk around because they might hear my footsteps.”
“I do not know how to turn up the heat, send an e-mail, call the answering machine for my messages, or do anything remotely creative with a chicken.” Fortunately, he doesn’t need to worry about any of that because his writing has given him the freedom to be the charming eccentric.
Readers gain insights into his process. “It sometimes helps to remind myself that not everyone is like me. Not everyone writes things down in a notebook and then transcribes them into a diary. Fewer still will take that diary, clean it up a bit and read it in front of an audience.”
In the essay “What I Learned,” he is by turns reflective and biting as he looks back and realizes “what we, in our certainty, could not have fathomed — is that stuff comes up. Weird doors open. People fall into things. Maybe the engineering whiz will wind up brewing cider, not because he has to, but because he finds it challenging. Who knows? Maybe the athlete will bring peace to all nations, or the class moron will go on to become president of the United States — though that’s more likely to happen at Harvard or Yale, schools that will pretty much let in anybody.”
This reviewer’s personal favorite is “April in Paris.” In this piece Sedaris describes how he began catching flies to feed to April, his favorite spider. It epitomizes his wacky, wonderful vision. “Most people would have found it grotesque, but when you’re in love nothing is so horrible that it can’t be thought of as cute. It slayed me that she had eight eyes.”
Hardcore fans will want to check out his unabridged audiobook.
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Duh Vick, Duh!
Sometimes things are so obvious that we fail to notice them, right? Let me give you an example. 15 years ago I was hosting a daily music show on WYSO. Music was my passion. I got lots of phone calls from listeners about the music I was playing on the program. That was fun.
I started getting calls from publishers asking me if I wanted to interview various authors on my program. My response was, hey, this is a music show - I play music. Why would I interview authors on my music show? Why, indeed? The calls just kept coming.
Then one day the light bulb went off in my head. I thought: why not? I love books. Why don’t I interview authors on the radio? So I did. Ten years later I had done over 1200 hour long interviews with authors. And I loved it.
Fast forward to today. I’m reviewing books for the Dayton Daily News. I love it! I get lots of calls from publishers who want me to check out various books, talk to authors, etc.
Among those calls are a few from publicists who want me to review DVD’s. I have been saying, hey, I’m a book reviewer. Why would I review DVD’s? Why, indeed.
The other day that slow working light bulb went off again in my head. I said to myself, hey, there are lots of DVD’s that are based on books. Duh! Sometimes it takes me a little while to get there. I like DVD’s!
My second grade teacher, Mrs. McIlhon had a nickname for me. She called me MOLASSES. She said that sometimes it really took me a long time to get to where I need to go but that I always got there in the end. When I was in the sixth grade she was on my paper route. Sometimes her paper was late but I never missed a delivery. I guess I’m still that way. Slow. Steady. Consistent. Sticky? No, she didn’t mean that.
I’m going to start doing some posts about DVD’s that I have seen. Watch this space for more….
Vick Mickunas
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remembering Tim Russert
Tim Russert has died from a sudden heart attack. He was 58 years old.
Here is a report from MSNBC:
WASHINGTON - “Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. He and his family had recently returned from Italy, where they celebrated the graduation of Russert’s son, Luke, from Boston College.
No further details were immediately available.
Russert was best known as host of “Meet the Press,” which he took over in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, “Meet the Press” is the longest-running program in the history of television.
But he was also a vice president of NBC News and head of its overall Washington operations, a nearly round-the-clock presence on NBC and MSNBC on election nights.
He was “one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time,” Tom Brokaw, the former longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in announcing Russert’s death. “This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice.”
In 2008, Time Magazine named Russert him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.
Senate staffer before entering journalism After graduating from law school, Russert went into politics as a staff operative. In 1976, he worked on the Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and in 1982, he worked on Mario Cuomo’s campaign for governor of New York.
Russert joined NBC News in 1984. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of NBC’s TODAY show from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television. In 1986 and 1987, Russert led NBC News’ weeklong broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.
Of his background as a Democratic political operative, Russert said, “My views are not important.”
“Lawrence Spivak, who founded ‘Meet the Press,’ told me before he died that the job of the host is to learn as much as you can about your guest’s positions and take the other side,” he said in a 2007 interview with Time magazine. “And to do that in a persistent and civil way. And that’s what I try to do every Sunday.”
Cuomo, Russert’s onetime boss, wrote of Russert: “Most candidates are not eager to present themselves for Tim’s incisive scrutiny, which is fed by his prodigious study and preparation. But they have little choice: appearing on ‘Meet the Press’ is today as vital to a serious candidate as being properly registered to vote.”
Russert wrote two books — “Big Russ and Me” in 2004 and “Wisdom of Our Fathers” in 2006 — both of which were New York Times best-sellers.
Emmy for Reagan funeral coverage In 2005, Russert was awarded an Emmy for his role in the coverage of the funeral of President Ronald Reagan. His “Meet the Press” interviews with George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 won the Radio and Television Correspondents’ highest honor, the Joan S. Barone Award, and the Annenberg Center’s Walter Cronkite Award.
Russert’s March 2000 interview of Sen. John McCain shared the 2001 Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television Journalism. He was also the recipient of the John Peter Zenger Award, the American Legion Journalism Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Journalism Award, the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism, the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication and the Catholic Academy for Communication’s Gabriel Award. He was a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.
Russert was a trustee of the Freedom Forum’s Newseum and a member of the board of directors of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club, and America’s Promise — Alliance for Youth.
In 1995, the National Father’s Day Committee named him “Father of the Year,” Parents magazine honored him as “Dream Dad” in 1998, and in 2001 the National Fatherhood Initiative also recognized him as Father of the Year.
Irish America magazine named him one of the top 100 Irish Americans in the country, and he was selected as a Fellow of the Commission of European Communities.
Survivors include Russert’s wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, whom he met at the 1976 Democratic National Convention; and their son, Luke.”
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Lakers choke
What a game. I watched the Boston Celtics play the Los Angeles Lakers tonight on TV. The Lakers put it to the Celtics in the first half. The Lakers were ahead by 24 points. A lot of viewers probably tuned out and went to bed. Not me.
The Celts mounted an incredible comeback in the second half. Boston won. It reminded me of a lot of authors I have known. Writers who have gotten rejection letters for their manuscripts. Everybody said their book was crap. Nobody wanted to publish it. But they kept trying. And one day somebody recognized their talent. They thought that book had merit.
They hit that crucial jump shot. They won. The book did well. All those LA fans looked like they had just taken a bite out of a lemon.
And so it goes. The Lakers could not put the Celtics away tonight. Boston played with heart. And soul. Now they are in control.
I love L.A. (choke)
Vick Mickunas
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getting naked in downtown Dayton
Some members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plan to get almost naked today in downtown Dayton.
Readers of the best selling book Skinny Bitch will understand why since they probably have a better understanding than most of the meaning of consuming a vegan diet.
For those seeking to understand the issues that inspire this baring of the flesh by PETA a new book can provide some insights. FOR THE LOVE OF ANIMALS - The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement (Henry Holt) by Kathryn Shevelow will be published on June 24.
PETA certainly knows how to attract attention. While vegetarianism may not be of interest to some getting naked certainly appeals to more than a few. I hope the Dayton Daily News plans to have photographers there to cover it. OK, a poor choice of words. To DOCUMENT it for posterity.
Over the years some very beautiful professional models have bared it all for PETA. This new book has a lovely photo of a very contented dog on the cover. The back cover has blurbs from three activists who I have met and who I respect; Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Temple Grandin, and Ingrid Newkirk.
So before you chomp down on that Vick Burger pause for a moment and consider…that burger was once a cow.
Vick Mickunas
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new in paperback
There was that long ago moment of sexual confusion that changed their lives forever. Ian McEwan’s ON CHESIL BEACH (Anchor Books) just came out in paperback. Have you ever had one of those moments where when you look back you realize that it changed everything? The perfect beach book.
Tired of eating alone? Don’t be. You have company. ALONE IN THE KITCHEN WITH AN EGGPLANT - Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone (Riverhead Books) is the perfect companion for those who really need one when dinnertime rolls around. There’s no shame in eating alone. No inhibitions either. Why not enjoy it? This collection of essays on food by the likes of Nora Ephron, M.F.K. Fisher, Amanda Hesser, and Haruki Murakami celebrate the tasty delights of dining solo.
Vick Mickunas
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Grandmaster Flash was furious
Back in the late 1970’s I had some very interesting jobs. I worked for a free form radio station. At the same time I worked at a record store. Disco was dying and a strange new music was being born: we called it rap but now it is known as hip hop. I remember when we got our first crate of 12-inch singles on Sugar Hill Records. It was a song by the Sugar Hill Gang. If you were around in those days then you know the song. It was every rapper’s delight.
The next big one from Sugar Hill was by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. That single sold and sold. It was quite a thing to behold. The store was in an urban area and these kids who were buying this music were early adopters; hipsters if you will.
This was urban music - sounds from the city, from the east coast. Music was changing and so were listeners.
A couple of years later Grandmaster Flash came to Des Moines to perform. The concert was being held at an unusual venue, the downtown Marriott Hotel. The promoter was a guy we all knew as Sugar Bear. He owned Soul Fire Records, Sugar Bear’s Activity Center, and a Lincoln Continental with a TV set and carpeting on the hood. Sugar Bear was a bad dude. Really bad.
As the crowd waited for the doors to open Sugar Bear was moving through the area. He looked stressed. I knew Earl AKA Sugar Bear and I could see that there was some kind of problem developing.
A few minutes later it became clear that Sugar had fled the scene. The crowd was getting restive. Enter Grandmaster Flash. He walked into the crowd with angry determination. He had a baseball bat and he started swinging it at random members of the crowd. I turned to my date and said; let’s get outta here.
We fought our way through the people as Grandmaster Flash and his Furious Five waded into the crowd, baseball bats flailing. As we approached the door to the stairwell and our escape from the carnage two columns of Iowa Highway Patrol officers surged into the crowd. They were followed by a swarm of Des Moines Police officers. All the cops had clubs and they began whaling on the crowd as we fled down the fire escape. We got THE MESSAGE.
That was my encounter with Grandmaster Flash. He was furious. Now he’s a legend. He has just published his memoir: THE ADVENTURES OF GRANDMASTER FLASH - My Life, My Beats (Broadway Books).
I suppose I had better read it. When he refers to “My Beats” I’m assuming that is not a reference to his baseball bat or that thumping time he had back in Des Moines??
Vick Mickunas
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amazing treasures found in books
One of my favorite aspects of summer is the proliferation of sales. Yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, and auctions are wonderful opportunities to obtain even more stuff that you simply cannot afford to pass up. Hey, this box of goodies is so cheap I just have to have it!
I’m always looking for more books. Sometimes I buy them for the things that have been left inside them. Old postcards. Photos. Announcements of births, marriages, funerals, parties. I have even found money that somebody stashed long ago in a book. They probably forgot about it. Or died. When my grandmother passed on they found all kinds of stuff that she had squirreled away in various places.
Alexis Larsen pointed out a fascinating post about the amazing things that have been found in books. To read the article click here.
Amazing treasures are often concealed inside books. Have you ever found something special hidden away inside a book? What was it?
Vick Mickunas
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Antioch College - dead, or ALIVE?
Have you ever played the game DEAD or ALIVE? Name a person or an entity. Ask your friends if that person or entity is dead or alive. Let’s try some examples…
Zsa Zsa Gabor. Dead or alive?
Rod Serling. Dead or alive?
Paul McCartney. Dead or alive?
The Democratic Party. Dead or alive?
Antioch College. Dead or alive?
(Earn extra credit for correct answers and even, funny ones).
In the case of Antioch College it should be noted that undead vampires are involved. It could be UNdead or Alive.
(Your correct answers and/or witty responses could merit some odd rewards).
Vick Mickunas
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stay cool with crime fiction
When the temperatures soar I like to stay cool with some of my favorite crime writers. There is some great stuff coming out from some of the greatest talents in the genre. James Lee Burke has a new Dave Robicheaux novel, SWAN PEAK(Simon&Schuster) coming out in a few weeks. Dave and Clete are far from Louisiana in this one as they track a crime syndicate in Montana. A real page turner.
Robert Crais publishes the highly anticipated CHASING DARKNESS(Simon&Schuster) in August. This latest in the Elvis Cole detective series finds Elvis and Joe Pike trying to solve the mystery of a vicious serial killer who is preying on women in the streets of Los Angeles. I talked to Crais about it when I was in LA last week. We were driving across town in his Range Rover and I made my usual bad joke. I said, hey Robert…look over there…that looks like a swell spot to hide your next victim. (It’s a joke!)
Ian Rankin’s EXIT MUSIC (Little,Brown)comes out in September as his beloved character John Rebus prepares to retire from the Edinburgh police. Rebus has some scores to settle as the clock ticks. His long time nemesis is taunting him. Will Rebus put him away for good? Rankin rules British crime fiction.
As soon as I finish the final Rebus I’ll be moving on NOTHING TO LOSE(Delacorte), the new Jack Reacher novel from Lee Child. I saw Lee last week in LA and he is every bit as cool as his character Jack Reacher. I am a confirmed Reacher Creature. The book came out last week.
Overheated? Cool off with some cool new novels.
Vick Mickunas
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seeing stars
Visitors to the Book Expo America conference last week in Los Angeles were met by a gigantic poster of the filmmaker Michael Moore. His facial expression was the impudent smirk of a juvenile delinquent. It blared “He’s Back!”
Book Expo America brings together thousands of booksellers, reviewers, authors and publishers. But attendance was down. The publishing industry is concentrated on the East Coast, and soaring gasoline prices kept many at home.
Los Angeles is the center of the entertainment industry, and celebrities were as thick as the stars on Hollywood Boulevard. Alec Baldwin signed autographs and hyped his upcoming book about his nasty divorce from Kim Basinger. William Shatner signed copies of his new autobiography.
Barbara Walters looked regal as she made her way into the Knopf booth to sign copies of her memoir, “Audition.” Her false eyelashes were a sight to behold. As she prepared to sign the first book, a diminutive woman burst through the crowd and addressed Walters in a distinctive German accent. It was “Dr. Ruth” Westheimer cutting in front of the line.
Across the way in the autographing area, authors appeared throughout the day. I saw Jamie Lee Curtis signing her latest children’s book. A few yards away Ernest Borgnine autographed his memoir.
The hallway leading into the autographing area was a superb location for spotting famous faces. I greeted Henry Winkler, Gary Hart and R.L. Stine.
By Saturday I was suffering from celebrity overload. Look over there — it’s Dionne Warwick. Across the way a mob surrounds Jackie Collins. As I was getting an autograph from Daily Kos blogger Marko Moulitsas Zuniga, the Daily Show’s John Hodgman was signing only a few feet away.
Walking miles with tote bags jammed with books is hard work. Fortunately, there were lots of parties each night to help take off the edge. Scoring tickets to attend the most exclusive parties can be a daunting task. This year Prince hosted a party at his home in the hills. I wasn’t invited. Prince performed into the wee hours of the morning.
I did make it to Larry King’s house in Beverly Hills for the party that he threw for Ted Turner. The food was exquisite. Larry King gave a brief speech, then introduced his billionaire boss, Ted Turner, whose memoir will be published this fall. Later, Turner asked me about my book reviews. When I said that I wrote for the Dayton Daily News, he told me about growing up in Cincinnati and moving away when he was 9 years old. Larry King has a huge portrait of himself in his house. This colorful likeness is executed in a most unusual medium: jellybeans.
Some years ago I booked an interview with Michael Moore on my radio show, but he never showed up. Now I understand why. He didn’t show up at Book Expo either.
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you know it’s summer when….
The lawnmower runs over an anthill and the enraged biting ants scurry up the legs of my pants.
Trumpet vines engulf the mail box.
Beer sales are foamy.
Wild roses bloom.
Corn is growing so fast it looks like it is moving.
Bats feast on mosquitoes at dusk along our road.
A giant frog splashes into the rainwater swelling the ditch. Wait, that was a rabbit.
E-mails bounce back because everybody is on vacation.
Catalpa blossoms form soft, fragrant drifts along the path.
Cats nap beneath the shrubbery.
The earth is steaming and the tornado sirens are screaming.
The books are slowing down as the publishing industry lapses into Fire Island mode.
Ice cream sounds good. Where can I find some chilled watermelon?
The candidates are perspiring.
How do you know when it is summer?
Vick Mickunas
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remembering Bobby Kennedy
For baby boomers of a certain age we sometimes ask one another if we can remember where we were when he heard that President John F. Kennedy was shot in November 1963 in Dallas. I remember where I was.
Forty years ago today, JFK’s younger brother Bobby was assassinated in Los Angeles. He had been running for president and his death crushed what little hope and optimism remained among some Americans following the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a couple of months previous.
That August Americans watched on their televisions as the Democratic convention in Chicago was marred by violence and police brutality. Richard M. Nixon was elected president that fall and America’s descent into darkness accelerated.
Do you remember the day that Bobby died? I do. I was a newspaper carrier and I delivered the Des Moines Tribune, an afternoon newspaper that blared the headlines whenever something terrible happened. I was just old enough to care about Bobby Kennedy - I was devastated.
Several new books have just been published to mark the 40th anniversary of RFK’s tragic death inside that Los Angeles hotel.
I’m reading Thurston Clarke’s THE LAST CAMPAIGN - Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America (Henry Holt) and remembering what could have been.
The “audacity of hope” is a powerful thing…..
Vick Mickunas
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connecting the dots
Wherever I wandered at Book Expo America I encountered people who savored the notion that I was there for the Dayton Daily News in OHIO. That Ohio connection really got people going. Let me explain.
When I met Ted Turner and he found out about my Ohio connection he told me that he grew up in Cincinnati and that he moved south when he was nine years old. That’s just one instance.
When I met the humorist Christopher Moore and he found out I was from Ohio he confessed that he grew up in London, Ohio. Then he told me his Ohio anecdote. He said that years ago he was on a panel with our homegrown comedian Jonathan Winters. He said that Winters told him a story about Jonathan’s grandfather. It seems that he was a contemporary of the Wright Brothers and whenever Jonathan’s gramps spotted the Wrights in downtown Dayton he would yell “What?! You can’t find air in Ohio?” (I guess you had to be there).
My most fascinating Ohio connection happened completely randomly. I was standing in a hallway with the novelist Robert Crais. He had offered to give me a lift to a party. While we were preparing to leave he saw a guy that he knew. He introduced me to the writer David Wise. I was not familiar with Wise or his work. He told me that he had spent his early years in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Then, like so many other former Ohioans that I had encountered at BEA, he moved away.
Wise offers an account of himself over at Amazon.com. He told me virtually the same thing; “I’m David Wise, and even if you’re not familiar with my name, if you’ve ever heard a teenage mutant ninja turtle say “Cowabunga, dude,” you’re familiar with my work.”
Wise has written for numerous animation series including 15 episodes of TRANSFORMERS, more than any other writer. Now he imports manga from Japan. Fascinating guy.
That Ohio connection seemed to virtually unlock the floodgates of nostalgia.
Vick Mickunas
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juicy details from BEA
Book Expo America in Los Angeles is in the books. I could write a book about some of bizarre things that I witnessed last week at publishing’s big blowout conference. But I won’t.
Many of the details are simply unpostable on a family blog. That being said, allow me to share some of the printable tidbits that came my way.
I was invited to lunch by an author who used to own the third largest studio in Hollywood. He was a big TV producer. He still makes movies. When he sold his studios a dozen years ago he cleared 500 million dollars.
We were waiting for his limousine to pull up. A limo approached the curb. He said that it wasn’t his limo. I said, no, that’s Hugh Hefner’s. The license plate said HEF 1. Sure enough, the legendary Playboy playboy climbed out of the car. My author friend ran over and said hello. Apparently, they know one another. Lunch was good.
At Larry King’s party for Ted Turner the grass in the back yard had been completely re-sodded for the event. I heard Mrs. Larry King telling another guest that some of the palm trees had been planted a few weeks ago.
Larry King made a speech from a podium next to the swimming pool. He did a humorous schtick about how we had probably noticed the great disparity in ages between King and his wife. She joined him. Their two young sons were also up there. One boy kept trying to hold his fingers up behind King’s head to form horns. His mother kept pushing the kid’s hand down. That was right at the point where King delivered his punchline about the difference in ages between them. He said: “If she dies, she dies.” Haha. I don’t think his kids got the joke?
I was making conversation at lunch with the author who got the half a billion dollars for his studios. I mentioned that I had been chatting with Ted Turner the night before over at Larry King’s house. My lunch companion made a somewhat sour expression when I mentioned Ted. I guess that Ted Turner has some REAL money.
And so it went in the land of palm trees, plastic people, expensive everything, and the blessed homeless.
Vick Mickunas
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Queen for a day
Alison Weir wrote the biographies “The Six Wives of Henry VIII,” “The Life of Elizabeth I” and “Henry VIII.” Her first novel, “Innocent Traitor,” was about Queen Elizabeth’s unfortunate cousin, Lady Jane Grey. Her new novel, “The Lady Elizabeth,” traces the early life of this daughter of King Henry VIII and his ill-fated consort, Anne Boleyn. As the story opens, the young princess is informed that her mother has been executed.
The book is written in three parts. In the first section, “The King’s Daughter,” we find a precocious young girl who wants to live with her father. Elizabeth has been relegated to a residence some distance away. As Henry VIII progresses through one failed marriage after another, his daughter languishes, sad about her mother while yearning for her father’s affection.
Her attempts to forge maternal bonds with Henry’s parade of doomed queens is pure tragedy. Weir paints a sympathetic portrait of a bright, neglected daughter and of a desperate ruler driven to do awful things in his quest for love and a male heir. Henry’s first daughter, Mary, is another royal exile and the source of what little mothering her half-sister, Elizabeth, receives.
In part two, “The King’s Sister,” Weir charts the transition that occurs when Henry dies. His son, Edward, a mere child and Elizabeth’s half-brother, ascends to the throne. Elizabeth is just entering adolescence, but life spans were shorter then. The average life span for women was 30 years. Many girls were married by the age of 12.
This is where the political maneuvering and intrigue kick into overdrive. Here’s the context: Edward was crowned king because he was the only male heir. His older half-sisters were next in line to succeed him. King Henry created the Church of England because the Catholic Church disapproved of his marital transgressions. His oldest daughter, Mary, was a devout Catholic, yet Edward and Elizabeth adhered to the beliefs of the new religion.
Thus, England was on the brink of becoming another battleground in the Protestant Reformation then sweeping across Europe.
Henry’s widow re-marries a powerful man known as “The Admiral.” Elizabeth goes to live with them. She is barely a teenager. This is the part of the book that is sure to raise some eyebrows. Her stepfather begins to display inappropriate behavior toward Elizabeth. She is flattered. This leads to a sexual awakening somewhat at odds with her later repute as “The Virgin Queen.”
In the final section of the book, “The Queen’s Sister,” Weir depicts the wrenching power struggle between these two half-sisters, “Bloody” Queen Mary and Elizabeth, following the death of King Edward. It plays out like a gigantic chess game with Spain and France making strategic moves to try to tilt the balance of power to try to control the English throne.
“The Lady Elizabeth” makes our modern political battles look like kid stuff.
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Leaving LA
The dust settles on another Book Expo America. It was a good one. I have lots of stories to share with you. The stars were out. I saw Alec Baldwin, Slash, Dionne Warwick, Barbara Walters, Stan Freberg, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ernest Borgnine..to name just a few.
I’m headed to LAX to catch my flight back to Dayton…more later.
From Book Expo America this is Vick Mickunas saying….I wanna go home!
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