Biography

All posts tagged Biography

WILD LIVES – Lori Robinson and Janie Chodosh

Posted by Daniel on September 18, 2019
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This book is essentially a collection of mini-biographies of people actively working in wildlife conservation.

Wildlife conservation is important to me … it’s a voting point for me … and so this book really had some appeal. The subtitle, “Leading Conservationists on the Animals and Planet They Love” sounded as though I would get some really important information on the conservation efforts.

The delivery of this book, however, is less than exciting.

Each ‘chapter’ is a mini biography on a different person and each chapter reads very much the same. We get background on the individual, what it was that got them started on their career path, the dangers they face, the dangers to the animals they ‘protect’ and the challenges that they face.  Now add a few comments from the individual to make it unique, and we’re off to the next mini biography.

I don’t really mean to make light of the people who are doing really important work, but the presentation here lacks inspiration. This works best as a coffee-table gift book – something that someone can pick up, read a chapter, put down, and pick it up again a few months later to read another chapter.

All of the twenty different people profiled are doing remarkable and important work. This alone makes the book well worth reading. And each chapter also provides information to the reader on how to learn more about the individual or their work efforts.

While all the chapters here are interesting, one stood out for me. The work of Dominique Bikaba, “Gorilla Warrior,” was especially interesting and his efforts noteworthy.

It is truly amazing that there are people in the world putting their very lives on the line to protect animals and it’s great to get this opportunity to ‘meet’ some of them. I do wish the books were a bit more exciting so that it was easier to recommend.

Looking for a good book? Wild Lives, by Lori Robinson and Janie Chodosh is an interesting book about some of the people working in wildlife conservation today.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Wild Lives: Leading Conservationists on the Animals and the Planet They Love

authors: Lori Robinson and Janie Chodosh

publisher: Skyhorse

ISBN: 1510713646

hardcover, 224 pages

THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS – Edward Wilson-Lee

Posted by Daniel on July 29, 2019
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Hernando Colón had a passion for books and a vision for an organized library. Hernando Colón was also Christopher Columbus’s illegitimate son.

Author/researcher Edward Wilson-Lee does a tremendous, detailed job of tracking down this story and getting in-depth on Hernando’s story.

While the name Christopher Columbus is known by every American school child, we know so little about him (other than what every fourth-grader learns in our white-washed history books), so just learning about this child sets us up for a number of fascinating insights.

While Hernando is an illegitimate child, Columbus still took him along on his fourth voyage to the New World (Hernando would have been thirteen at the time).  This could well have been the spark that led Colón to a life of pursuing knowledge. He searched for books, in all languages, and he collected maps and art portfolios, searching through small booksellers’ collections on his varied trips.  This led to his organization a catalog of his books – a way for him to determine whether or not a particular volume or work of art was already in his collection.  It was because of this new method of cataloging that when a shipwreck occurred and Colón lost thousands of books at sea, he knew which ones needed to be replaced. And it was because of his vast collection of maps, as well as his familiarity with his father’s travels, that Colón was asked to step in to create a map – the final, authoritative map – of the New World so that Portugal and Spain could once and for all settle on territorial rights.

But it was at this time that Hernando was also quite familiar with his father’s fall from grace and standing – how Spain tried to take his discovery away from him – to honor other explorers, which would also take away the inheritance of Columbus’s legitimate heirs.

This book is amazing.  I think I learned more history and more sociology and more library science through this one book than I have in a very long time.

In many respects, the book has more history/biography about Columbus than I was hoping for. It was definitely a great lesson in history – I’d had no idea that Columbus lost so much favor – but what attracted me to the book was the idea of the development of the early library. These moments in the book … the revelation of Colón’s passion for books and his search to constantly improve his library … were not only the reason I started this, but the best moments of the book.

Looking for a good book? If you like history, if you like learning something very new about something very old, if the history of the printed word fascinates you, then The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee is a book you really ought to read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library

author: Edward Wilson-Lee

publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 1982111399

hardcover, 416 pages

FAST INTO THE NIGHT – Debbie Clarke Moderow

Posted by Daniel on July 26, 2019
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

The Iditarod dog sled race is, I think, quite well-known, though most of us know few (if any) people who’ve run the course. It is certainly not the sort of course one challenges without having some experience with running dog sleds.

Enter Debbie Clarke Moderow – a 40-something mother of two on the Iditarod Trail, 200 miles from the end of the course, with a team of dogs who’ve decided that they don’t want to run any more. In this memoir, Fast into the Night, Moderow writes candidly of her feelings during the journey as well as her observations about her own preparedness.

If, for some reason, we ever thought that guiding a dog sled on a grueling winter course would be fun and easy, Moderow corrects that notion. The two biggest challenges, based on Moderow’s writing, are: 1) the rider’s own doubts and insecurities, and 2) the dogs.  The environmental conditions is a more distant third.

More than once Moderow’s dogs decide that they aren’t going to run/pull.  What do you do?  How hard do you you fight with them to get them to respect and listen to you before they fear you?

Moderow attempts the Iditarod more than once and both accounts are remembered here.

Memoirs are a tricky literary form … what is the purpose of reading someone else’s memoirs?  Often it’s because it is someone we know – a celebrity of popular figure and we want to know more about them and the way they think.  But when it’s someone you don’t know … when it’s a Debbie Clarke Moderow, for instance … there needs to be something else (in this case it’s the Iditarod race) and we hope that we get to know the author more through their memoir.  But I don’t feel that’s the case so much.

I never felt compelled to root for Moderow and never felt the exhaustion or anxiety that she must have felt along the way.  Despite the level of intensity (I imagine) needed to accomplish such a race, I felt that this moved along at a slow, even pace and I never learned anything from it (other than that sled dogs are unpredictable).

This wasn’t a bad read, but I don’t feel as though I can recommend it.

Looking for a good book? Fast into the Night is a memoir of Debbie Clarke Moderow’s journey to start and finish the Iditarod dog sled race. If that means anything to you, you might enjoy this book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Fast into the Night

author: Debbie Clarke Moderow

publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN: 0544484126

hardcover, 272 pages

MENTORS – Francis M. Naumann

Posted by Daniel on July 17, 2019
Posted in: NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Before I ever wrote my first book review, I was an art student and I had been writing reviews of art shows in my community.  It never occurred to me that anyone could make a living as an art historian/reviewer … I did it as a way to make sure I got to different art shows. When I saw this book available for review I was so delighted to have my request approved.  Mentors, and art, and art history are certainly subjects dear to me.

What’s really intriguing about this book is that it is an autobiography and a series of mini-biographies all rolled into one book.  Francis M. Naumann is telling his story, but how can any of us tell our own story without bringing into light the people we connected with and who helped shape us?

As we get to know more about Naumann – an art scholar and expert on Dada and Surrealism – we also get to know Leo Steinberg, John Rewald, and Beatrice Wood (and to a lesser degree [through the course of the book], Robert Rosenblum, Robert Pincus-Witten, and William Rubin) – each an important figure in the world of art and art history.

One portion of the book is distinctly not art related.  Naumann tells of his being adopted, tremendously happy with his adopted family, but like many who are adopted, curious about the genetics that formed him (since the book is about his ‘learned environment’ in becoming the man he is, this becomes the section related to his biological environment).  His search for his biological parents does lead to a meeting with a frail, ailing parent that does not have the result he was hoping for … which is why this is little more than a footnote of a chapter.

I was impressed with this book and Naumann’s writing.  I’m quite curious about his other works and now have a new list of books that I hope to read.

Looking for a good book? Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian by Francis M. Naumann is a truly delightful autobiography and collection of mini-biographies rolled into one well-written book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Mentors: The Making of an Art Historian

author: Francis M. Naumann

publisher: Doppelhouse Press

ISBN: 0999754467

paperback, 204 pages

STEELY DAN FAQ – Anthony Robustelli

Posted by Daniel on May 24, 2019
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’m a big fan of the music of Steely Dan, though I know very little about them (other than who played on some of the songs) and so I thought that this would be a great book for me to request for review.

There is a lot of really wonderful information in this book and while I don’t know that it’s all factual (since it is new to me) I get the sense that author Anthony Robustelli has done a very thorough job of researching his subject.

We get a good, solid biography of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and what led up to their creating Steely Dan and a pretty decent snapshot of some of the early confusion of just who made up the members of the group.

Robustelli brings us into the very early days of the partnership with Becker and Fagen taking different work in Los Angeles and shares multiple stories about the demanding work they expected when in the studios.  I’d heard stories about how demanding they could be, but to get this perspective from the people who played for them was really interesting. Something I hadn’t been aware of, which I found tremendously fascinating was how Fagen and Becker would bring in multiple people to play on a track to determine which sound they liked best.

We get a very detailed breakdown of each album, the songs, and who played on them (and when). We also get an accounting of Becker and Fagen’s solo careers and live performances and bootleg albums from some of the live shows.

One of the things that struck me was what I took as Robustelli’s personal reactions to some of the songs, referring to the performances as a reviewer rather than an observer.  This took a little bit away from me – I like to make my own reactions to a performance.  A book of this nature … a FAQ or biographical book should be a little more unbiased (in my view).

There are plenty of photos here as well, though not as many of Becker and Fagen in their younger days as one would perhaps hope for.

This is part of a series of FAQ books and I’m definitely interested in reading a few more, given the detail this book provided.

Looking for a good book?  Steely Dan FAQ by Anthony Robustelli is packed full of information and is definitely worth reading for anyone interested in learning more about ‘the Dan.’

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Steely Dan FAQ: All That’s Left to Know about This Elusive Band

author: Anthony Robustelli

publisher: Backbeat Books

ISBN: 1495025128

paperback, 416 pages

WHY WE WRITE – Meredith Maran, editor

Posted by Daniel on January 3, 2019
Posted in: NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

There’s no shortage of books about writing and hopeful writers will devour not only ‘how to’ books, but books by and about ‘famous’ authors to hopefully glean that little nugget of information that will lead the hopeful onto a path of publishing and fame.

In Why We Write, editor Meredith Maran has collected short bios and Q&A’s with twenty writers of varying styles. Anyone picking up this book is likely familiar with most of these authors, if not all of them.

The book really offers nothing new except that the common mantra (“I write because I can’t imagine doing anything else”) comes straight from the individual.

We see here that writing is tough.  It’s a hard job and a publishing contract doesn’t mean instant success. Only those truly new to writing will be surprised by anything offered here. That’s not to say that there weren’t little moments that I found delightful.  For instance … while I’ve never read anything by Armistead Maupin, I enjoyed his little truthful moment:

I don’t mean to say that I don’t have those glorious moments when I look at a paragraph and find it every bit as graceful and illuminating as I wanted it to be. I’ve been known to do a little jig around the room when that happens. The problem is, I can’t let myself proceed until I’m thoroughly happy with that paragraph. Every writer’s manual on the planet tells you to just spill it all out and polish it later. I haven’t been able to do that since the late seventies, when I was writing the serial on carbon paper, choosing my words and moving on immediately because of the daily newspaper deadline. The word processor, as much as I can’t imagine life without it, has only made me pokier, since it enables me to polish endlessly. At best, I’ll write only a page or two a day when working on a novel. I want my books to read like a brisk run through the woods, so my job is to get the obstacles out of the way. That takes time and sweat. A lot of people assume that a fast read is a fast write. Oh, if only that were true.

Or Mary Karr’s words of wisdom: “Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident.”

And for all the advice offered here (which, honestly, isn’t that much) Kathryn Harrison (another author here whom I’ve never read) boils it all down: “It’s good to have talent and discipline, but there’s really no substitute for discipline.”

There are twenty authors here and each gets 10-11 pages which includes a short bio, a vital stats (including awards), a bibliography of their works, a few paragraphs that read like responses to questions, and a “Wisdom for Writers” bullet-point list. It all comes across as pretty generic. Most of these writers are pretty busy with whatever projects they are working on and they likely shot off their responses without a great deal of in-depth thought … or at least that’s how it comes across.

There’s nothing ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ here. It’s a pretty average book that I wouldn’t steer you away from nor would I encourage you to read it.

The authors included here are:

Isabel Allende
David Baldacci
Jennifer Egan
James Frey
Sue Grafton
Sara Gruen
Kathryn Harrison
Gish Jen
Sebastian Junger
Mary Karr
Michael Lewis
Armistead Maupin
Terry McMillan
Rick Moody
Walter Mosely
Susan Orlean
Ann Pratchett
Jodi Picault
Jane Smiley
Meg Wolitzer

Looking for a good book? Why We Write, edited by Meredith Maran, is a collection of material, including some very brief essays from working writers on why they write. It’s pretty safe fare and not likely to provide much insight.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do

editor: Meredith Maran

publisher: Plume

ISBN: 0452298156

paperback, 228 pages

MONK! – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on October 8, 2018
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, MEMOIR. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

Youssef Daoudi’s Monk! is about as close to jazz music in literary form as you can get.

On the surface, this story is relatively simple – this is a biography of jazz genius, Thelonius Monk. But just as any life in general and the life of a black jazz musician in the 1940’s-1960’s decades is hardly simple, this book weaves a circuitous path to tell the story.  Our narrators are Monk and Pannonica de Koenigswarter (a baroness who had been a long-time friend a patron to Monk) in other-worldly, often depressing, scenes, recalling various important moments in a life filled with important moments.

This book is clearly a labor of love and it wouldn’t surprise me if it had taken an extremely long time to put together, getting each nuance and each frame of art just right.  And yet there is an unmistakable sense of improvisation here as well, just the way jazz would be played. But make no mistake – it’s just the sense of improv – this book is tightly written.

As with the story, the art is … jazz. There’s a looseness in the art that mirrors the “flexible rhythmic understructure” (from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition definition) of jazz.

I will say that when I first started this book, the style of art was just a little off-putting for me – a little confusing.  But I set it aside and came back to it a few days later and was much more open to the infusion of jazz in both the art and the story.

I’ve listened to plenty of Monk’s music, but my knowledge of his life was next to nothing before reading this. It’s a fascinating story and the platonic(?), long-term relationship with Pannonica is odd and lovely and one can’t help but wonder what Monk’s music might have been like without this support, this muse, in his life.

This is not only one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in some time, this is one of the finest books I’ve read, period. Give it a read.

Looking for a good book? Monk! by Youssef Daoudi, is a graphic novel about Thelonius Monk and is a remarkable achievement in blending biography, art, and the sense of Monk’s jazz, into one book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution

author: Youssef Daoudi

artist: Youssef Daoudi

publisher: First Second Books

ISBN: 1626724342

hardcover, 352 pages