Book reviews written by CC

LaSalle County (IL) (Images of America)

by Susan Shaver Koller

Rated 4 stars

“
This was just an awesome book to read and look at. The entire book is full of quality archival photos from La Salle County (in northern Illinois) covering the time period from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. The author has done extensive research into these vintage photos, and their descriptions contain interesting details and fascinating stories of the people and places depicted. I was captivated for hours reading this pictorial history of one of my favorite places in Illinois.

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CC wrote this review Thursday, April 4, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

Man Gave Names to All the Animals

by Bob Dylan

Rated 4 stars

“Based on a 1979 song by Bob Dylan (album: Slow Train Coming), artist Scott Menchin used to hum the song and ponder how to illustrate it. This big, boldly-illustrated children’s book would be fun to read to very small children, who love to hear stories of animals. This story tells how “man gave names to all the animals, in the beginning, long time ago.” I read it while playing the song --- it was pretty cool.

NOTE: A new edition of this book was published in 2010, illustrated by Jim Arnosky. While Menchin’s illustrations are comically stylized, Arnosky’s are rendered with more realism.
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CC wrote this review Monday, April 1, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

A Time to Harvest

by Franklin Halverson

Rated 4 stars

“Reminiscent of Currier & Ives prints, these “memory paintings” of Franklin Halverson are somewhere between the primitiveness of Grandma Moses and the sharp, professional realism of Norman Rockwell.

Halverson (1892-1989) was a commercial artist who did advertising illustrations for farm equipment companies in northeast Iowa during the 1950s. His only art schooling was through a correspondence course offered by Columbia University. His mechanical drawings were meticulously detailed.

During the 1960s, when he was in his late 60s, he began “writing [his] memoirs with a brush:” painting, from memory, scenes of growing up on a turn-of-the-century Iowa grain and livestock farm. He kept painting for the next 20 years, joking about someday having a museum of his paintings. That never happened, but this book is definitely a memorial to his exceptional art, and a museum (of sorts) of a bygone culture in America’s history, when small farmers worked the land with animals instead of machinery.

Bob Barnard wrote the stories to accompany the beautiful, full-color reproductions of Halverson’s paintings. He blends a description of what is going on in each painting with his own memoirs of growing up on an Iowa farm himself, during the Great Depression.

Soon there will be nobody left alive who remembers rural life before combustion-engine-driven machinery, modern conveniences such as electricity and running water in homes, and giant, multi-national factory farms. Who will remember tight-knit farming communities, where neighbor helped neighbor, through everything from barn-raisings and butchering to quilting bees and grain harvests? It’s books like these that keep those memories alive. I’d love to have this beautiful, oversized volume of early 20th-century nostalgia for my own personal library.
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CC wrote this review Tuesday, March 26, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

The Calcutta Chromosome

by Amitav Ghosh

Rated 2 stars

“This was the 1997 winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction. I wasn’t impressed; in fact, I understood so little of it that I don’t feel I can review it. I doubt I could even write a Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis of it. It was a slow starter which finally got a little better toward the end, even though I never really figured out what was going on. And I never really connected with any of the four main characters either.

The book jacket says its “a bizarre alternate history of medical science… [a] dazzling and haunting mix of science fiction, the history of malaria research, thriller, ghost story and post-colonial allegory.” OK. Whatever...”

CC wrote this review Friday, March 8, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed

by Cynthia Ceilan

Rated 4 stars

“This quick read was a totally fascinating collection of anecdotes about the weird ways that people have died. WARNING: The material is graphic, not for the squeamish. The subject matter would be morbid, if it wasn’t so darn interesting. Some readers may wish to skip Chapter 5 - “So Sexy It Hurts” --- graphic/gross.

The stories include many of the deaths of famous people, if there’s anything strange or coincidental about them. Some of the stories are unbelievable, some are familiar from recent news reports. They reach back into the distant past, and they span the globe. They include accidental deaths, stupid-accidental deaths, TSTL accidental deaths, premonitions, murders, suicides, etc. etc. Sometimes the stories are even funny, because the writing style is full of puns.

The author gives an extensive source list for her material and claims that every effort was made to authenticate the veracity of it. I think it would make a great bathroom read because the stories are short, and you can just pick up the book and read at random if you want. I’d like to have this one, or reread it and take notes. Lots of great trivia here. I was absolutely entertained.
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CC wrote this review Wednesday, February 13, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

Waging Heavy Peace

by Neil Young

Rated 5 stars

“The photo on the back cover of a "young" Neil Young just mesmerized me!

This five-star autobiography of one of my favorite rock musicians got off to a slow start for me. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Canadian superstar spent the first hundred pages going on and on about his hobby of model trains, his work toward developing better sound quality for users of modern electronic music-listening devices, and his collection of rare cars.

But he was only warming up with the many things that he’s passionate about: his family, his music, his friends, his inventions, his visions for the future. The book was full of interesting stories of the people and bands he made music with, as well as personal anecdotes about his family life, his work for the betterment of small farmers as co-founder of Farm Aid, his founding of the Bridge School for severely handicapped children, and his soon-to-be unveiled LincVolt car, a 1959 Lincoln Continental he’s converting to hybrid technology.

With a music career spanning 4 decades and 32 studio albums, he has a lot to talk about. If you don’t mind passages with technical stuff, he balances the technology (recording music, converting cars, always trying to find a better way to do something) with a personal memoir that seemed honest and tender, full of love and peace.

If you’re a fan or a rockologist, you’ll want to grab this new book. If you just don’t know, check him out on Youtube, in a September interview with David Letterman, in which he explains his new high-definition, music-listening device, the Pono, and introduces his then just-released autobiography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GrgTiqZCF0&list=FLSg-xvyNWB2Of7wbYVQEZRg&index=3
”

CC wrote this review Tuesday, January 29, 2013. ( reply | permalink )

Made in America Folk art from the shelburne museum

by

Rated 3 stars

“There wasn't much reading in this beautiful little gift "Book for Special Days." Photos of artwork are gorgeously displayed on the left-hand pages with a 7-day calendar on the right. Each photo has a paragraph describing it. The fascinating history of the museum is told in the introduction.

The Shelburne was founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb near the shores of Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont. Her parents, Mr, and Mrs H.O. Havemeyer, along with their friend, the artist Mary Cassatt, had amassed one of the earliest collections of Old Masters and European Impressionist paintings. They were appalled when their daughter started collecting "junk," i.e. Early American Folk Art.

When she married Cornielius Vanderbilt's great-grandson Watson Webb in 1910, she became mistress of estates in Vermont and Long Island, as well as a 17-room apartment on NY's Park Avenue. As her "junk" collection started taking over their homes, Mrs Webb began the Shelburne Museum in 1947 with one building on 8 acres, so the public could enjoy her collection of primitive paintings, glass, china, dolls, sculptures, hunting decoys, period costumes, weather vanes, etc. She also began buying old buildings and had them dismantled, moved to her museum, and reconstructed on the grounds. Today there are 35 exhibition buildings, including a school house, a general store, jail, Adirondack hunting lodge, lighthouse, a half-dozen Early American homes, and the historic steamship, the Ticonderoga.

Some of the most interesting folk art included in the book include a very elaborate squirrel cage for a child's pet, complete with round "treadmill" which moved carved figures on top as the squirrel worked out. Also featured were intricately detailed carved carousel animals (my favorites were the saddled and bridled tiger, billy goat and lion), a circus equestrian weather vane, and exquiste handcrafted rugs and quilts.

I hope to take a road trip around New England someday, and the Shelburne will be a must-see stop on my travel itinerary. ”

CC wrote this review Monday, December 31, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

Journal of a Novel

by John Steinbeck

Rated 4 stars

“Published posthumously a year after Steinbeck’s death, this journal was never intended for publication. During the 9 months in 1951 when he wrote his magnum opus, East of Eden, Steinbeck wrote “letters” to his friend and editor, Pat Covici, as a warm-up exercise before his day’s work on the novel.

The entire first draft of East of Eden was written in Steinbeck’s own tiny handwriting in a number of notebooks. He would write his warm-up notes to Pat on the left-hand pages and the day’s work on the manuscript on the right-hand pages. His wife would then type up the handwritten manuscript to be delivered (usually ten pages of the novel-in-progress per week) to the editor each Friday.

The “letters” contained notes on the story, comments on the progress of the plot and characterization, questions, requests, and personal notes about his life and family happenings that went on as he was writing the book.

If you’re a Steinbeck fan, if you’ve read East of Eden and enjoyed it as much as I did --- I recommend this “journal” as a fascinating look into the life of this beloved American author and the actual writing process of this classic novel. If not, this book probably wouldn’t make much sense.
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CC wrote this review Friday, December 21, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea

by Joyce Carol Thomas

Rated 4 stars

“This beautifully illustrated children’s book celebrates a little girl’s pride of family and her African heritage with easy-to-read and understand poems. This is a great book to read in autumn as Floyd Cooper’s illustrations are in luscious fall colors. Very nicely done.”

CC wrote this review Saturday, December 15, 2012. ( reply | permalink )

Plants of Christmas

by Hal Borland and Anne Ophelia Dowden

Rated 3 stars

“Hal Borland (1900-1978) was a favorite nature author of mine back in the 70s. I was thrilled to find a children’s book by him (although any age person who loves plants --- or Christmas --- will also enjoy it) at my local library. He explains the history, legends, and traditions behind the plants we use to decorate our homes and places of worshipful gathering during the holiday season. There are 12 different plants featured, including holly, ivy, poinsettia, mistletoe, and others. The beautiful botanical illustrations by Anne Ophelia Dowden are as enjoyable as the text.
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