The Fish That Ate the Whale

The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen

With engaging prose and an engrossing story, Cohen lays out the page-turning life of Sam the Banana Man. He started life on a Russian wheat farm, immigrated to America, and became head of United Fruit during its biggest financial success and largest moral failures.

Cohen can tell a story like nothing else, and this is quite the story to tell. Sam Zemurray is the American dream made real, in the best and worst ways. I didn't know a lot about US involvement in Latin and South America via fruit companies beyond the term "Banana Republic" and it being super shady, and this really helped lay out a lot of what was going on. From the New Orleans docks to Panamanian banana plantations to Manhattan boardrooms, it was a book I could not put down. A perfect blend of fascinating subject and wonderful narrative voice. I have put several other books by Cohen on hold.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Port Chicago 50

I am a Cybils second round judge. I am currently reading the all the nominated books in a fun "armchair readalong" way with the first round judges. My reviews and opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the work of the committee.

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Steve Sheinkin

During WWII, the armed forces were still segregated. Black men who signed up were subjected to segregated mess halls (sometimes eating the cold leftovers of their white counterparts) and barracks, and given the most menial jobs. They were often treated even worse when they were off base.

In the Navy, black sailors were only allowed to be mess attendants when on a ship. They weren’t eligible for promotion. At California’s Port Chicago, they had to load ammunition onto ships. Only black sailors had to do this and they were not given any training on how to properly handle explosives. Their white commanding officers took bets on which Divisions could load the most, creating a hurried and unsafe atmosphere.

On July 17th, 1944, there was an explosion. A small one, then a big one. 320 men died (202 were black men loading ammunition.) Another 390 were injured (mostly due to flying glass when the shock wave blew out windows.) The 1200 foot pier was gone, as were the 2 battle ships being loaded. No one’s entirely sure what happened or why, because anyone who saw it was killed immediately.

On August 9th, the black sailors, some still recovering from their injuries, were told to go back to work loading ammunition. 258 (out of 328) refused, saying they would obey any order but that one. On August 11th, facing mutiny charges, 208 returned to work. The remaining 50 were charged.

The trail was a racist farce and all were found guilty, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, followed by dishonorable discharge. In 1946 their sentences were commuted and eventually all were discharged with honorable conditions (which is better than dishonorable, but not honorable. You can get VA benefits, but not the GI Bill). In 1999, President Clinton pardoned one of the mutineers, but many did not want a pardon--they wanted their convictions overturned.

Today, all of them have passed on. All of them are still convicted of mutiny.

No one will be surprised to hear that once again Steve Sheinkin has written a riveting account of history. It is a great one for WWII or Black History projects, or anyone interested in injustice, legal dramas, or the armed forces. In true Sheinkin fashion, he pulls in many threads--American racism, the Navy and War Department’s unwillingness to challenge that status quo, the personal stories of many of the sailors involved, the story of what was actually happening, and the impact it had in larger society then and today.

One thing I found interesting--Thurgood Marshall is introduced as an NAACP lawyer, working throughout the war to help defend black armed service personnel from racist persecution and injustice. He watched the trial and foughtfor years to appeal. But, it never mentions what Marshall goes on to eventually do. (I mean, it’s not like we all grow up to be Supreme Court Justices.)

There are many photographs throughout the text (unfortunately, a few have been blown up too largely and are pixelated) and I love the trim size--even though it’s written a bit younger than younger than Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weaponor The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery, but the trim size should entice older readers to pick it up.

It’s a story that many have sadly forgotten, but Sheinkin’s powerful storytelling will hopefully tell this story to many more readers.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Because They Marched

I am a Cybils second round judge. I am currently reading the all the nominated books in a fun "armchair readalong" way with the first round judges. My reviews and opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the work of the committee.

Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America Russell Freedman

This title looks at the Selma voting rights Marches, culminating in the Selma to Montgomery march. It talks about Jim Crow, and the importance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I greatly appreciated the epilogue that looks at how key provisions have recently been struck down, and what the means.
I am a huge Freedman fan and he consistently creates books that are beautiful and informative.

This one, however, falls short of expectations. For one, I’m not sure what Holiday House was thinking, but I’m used to Freedman’s books being printed on a heavy gloss paper and this one’s not. I’m surprised by how big of a difference this makes, but it does.

It does retain that classic Freedman style of lots of large photographs, but all the text is black-on-white and some of the more beautiful design that we’ve come to expect is missing.

Now that would be ok if the text was amazing, but it’s not. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s perfectly serviceable, but I’m used to finding his writing engrossing even when he’s covering topics I know well.

There is nothing wrong with this book per se, but there’s also not a lot right with it when you compare it to his other works, or even better treatments on the same subject (it’s going to be really hard to find a book on Selma that’s better than Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary)

Overall, a resounding “meh” which is disappointing for someone like Freedman.



Book Provided by... my local library

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The Family Romanov

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia Candace Fleming

It opens with an imperial ball in 1903 to celebrate St. Petersburg’s 200th anniversary, the story then jumps back to the childhood of Nicholas II and Alexandra. It starts getting more in-depth once they are married, which is the same time that Nicholas II becomes Tsar. What follows is a horrific story of incompetence and willful ignorance and a population pushed to action in order to survive.

I knew Imperial Russia had problems, and I knew Nicholas II wasn’t the greatest ruler, but holy crap. Fleming paints a bleak picture that offers them very little redemption. Running parallel to the story of the Romanov family is an introduction to early 20th century Russian history, looking at what life was like for ordinary Russians and the causes and starts of the Revolution. The story seamlessly works in quotations pulled from journals and other primary source documents.

Despite covering so much, she keeps it very readable and it’s a great introduction to the subjects, but I think that readers who already know about the topics covered will get a lot out of it as well. It has two different inserts of photographs and frequently in the text is a pull-out box titled “Beyond the Palace Gates” which contains the words of someone else--a soldier, a factory worker, a reporter, a peasant--to add contrast and context to the main narrative.

The package wins further points with it'scomprehensive back matter--endnotes, bibliography, index-- and being a teen-friendly trim size. (I have very strong feelings on trim size for teen nonfiction. It's a surprisingly huge factor in appeal.)

Overall, it is fascinating and horrifying, and just really well-done and put together. I highly recommend it and keep an eye out for it come award season.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Spell it Out

Spell It Out: The Curious, Enthralling and Extraordinary Story of English Spelling David Crystal

Much like he does in The Story of English in 100 Words, Crystal has made language history exceedingly accessible. This is a basic history of English spelling and how it developed over time, and why it’s so darn wacky. (Short story-- trying to use the latin alphabet for a non-Latin language, scribes changing spelling to make things easier/prettier on the page, French influence after the Norman conquest, and the Great Vowel shift.)

But, for a book that could easily be boring, short chapters and a conversational style make this one an easy read. I also love love love love that Crystal doesn’t decry texting and the internet as ruining spelling. He also makes wonderful arguments as to why spelling is more important than ever. There's also an entire section for early education teachers with his ideas about how to teach spelling to make it more relevant, easier, and fun.

Very fun, and an Outstanding Book for the College Bound that I think teens will really enjoy.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Deborah Blum.

You guys are so lucky you haven’t been within earshot of me when I was reading this book. SO GOOD.

Medicine, murder, politics, and detective work combine to make for fascinating reading. Anyone familiar with crime drama knows you have to talk to the Medical Examiner to find out what happened. But in the beginning of the 20th century, that wasn’t the case. In New York, a few intrepid men developed the field of forensic medicine to help detect cause of death in the morgue. The growing field made it so poison was no longer an easy murder to get away with, as police could then say for sure that someone had been poisoned, and with what, which made tracking down the murderer that much easier.

But this is also Prohibition. We think of bathtub gin and homemade stills, but most of the alcohol on the streets was denatured industrial alcohol, stolen and then resold. In an effort to curb illegal drinking, the government kept demanding that more and more poisons be added to the alcohol. The result didn’t stop people from drinking, but it killed a lot of them. You can read more about it here. They also made an episode of American Experience on PBS about it.

(As that article is also written by Blum, it also gives a good taste of the book.)

And oh! The politics. Tamany Hall was NOT happy about the new medical examiner system and the office was often battling for basic funding and resources.

Blum weaves all these tales together to tell a gruesome and fascinating story about the development of a scientific field that now seems commonplace, a time in history we largely romanticize despite the body count, and well, poisoner and murder! Blum has a gift for story-telling and detail that draws you in (she also has an eye for the gruesome-- the wet chemistry involved wasn't always pretty.)

Excellent reading and a book that made the Outstanding Books for the College bound list!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Their Skeletons Speak

Their Skeletons Speak: Kennewick Man and the Paleoamerican World Sally M. Walker

We're almost done looking at the long list for YALSA's Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Sally Walker had two books on the list this year-- big congratulations to her!

Like her Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland, Walker looks at the history and science and significance of several sets of remains. This time, she focuses on the oldest skeletons found in the Americas.

The book mostly focuses on 9,000 years-old Kennewick Man, how we was discovered on a riverbank in 1996 and how much we have discovered about where we came from.

I'm a huge fan of Bones and so I love of Walker shows us how the reconstruction and renderings work in real life. I find such things fascinating. I also like how Walker looks at a range of finds and how they all relate to each other in forming a unified theory of early human life in the Americas. I hope Walker continues to write books on using forensic science and history-- wonderful stuff.

Today's Nonfiction Monday round up is over at Stacking Books. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... the publisher for awards consideration.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Impossible Rescue

Before we get to the reviewing, just a reminder about my other project, YA Reading List, where I post a themed reading list EVERY SINGLE DAY.

The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure Martin W. Sandler

I'm covering the books that were on the 2013 long-list for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. For those who don't know, I was on this committee and I really want to highlight these other titles that we loved.

Off the coast of Alaska, the winter of 1897 came early, trapping eight whaling ships in the ice. There was a small settlement on shore, but between the ships and the settlement, there were not enough provisions to get through the winter, and no way to get more. (One ship managed to not be trapped, and was able to let people know what was going on, but there wasn't enough time to get back via ship for a rescue effort before winter hit full force.) President McKinley had a plan and sent three men to get them food-- they'd travel through the state and buy reindeer herds along the way, and herd the reindeer to where the men were stranded. Meanwhile, at the ships, morale and discipline were running just as low as the food.

Sandler does an excellent job of describing the conditions and tensions that run through this story. From a modern vantage point, the situation is hard to wrap your head around, but Sandler explains it really well and will have you on the edge of your seat, shivering through the Arctic reader with the whalers and their rescuers. There are several photographs and primary sources illustrating the text. It also gets high marks for some truly excellent maps and excellent back matter-- including a comprehensive "what happened next" for the people involved.

Today's Nonfiction Monday is over at Wendie's Wanderings. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... the publisher, for award consideration

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Nonfiction Monday: Haunted Histories

Haunted Histories: Creepy Castles, Dark Dungeons, and Powerful Palaces by JH Everett, illustrated by Marilyn Scott-Waters.

I'm taking a break from the covering the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction longlist to bring you something else that I just read.

Virgil is a ghostorian-- a historian with a magic time-travel device that allows him to go to any place in any time and talk to ghosts to get a good sense of what really happened there.

He uses these powers to take us to many castles around the world to show how hard (and disgusting) life really was, especially for the many people who WEREN'T royalty, but still lived there.

In a lot of ways, this is very similar to the You Wouldn't Want to Be... series, but for a slightly older audience. The content isn't that older, but the trim size and presentation will make it appeal to readers who might dismiss the You Wouldn't Want to Be... books as looking too young.

It's a fun look at the dark and gritty side of castle life, focusing on why castles tended to exist in the first place-- fortresses to protect and defend during war time. It also spends a lot of time on dungeons and torture.

I'm not sure on the who "ghostorian" angle-- it wasn't played up a lot and so when it did happen, I was like "wait, what? OH YEAH! THAT!" I think they could have done A LOT more with that bit. Or cut it entirely.

I do really like that it covered castles outside of Europe. I also really liked the "funny" castles. Hellbrunn Water palace was a designed by the Prince Archbishop, and was a way for him to play a million water-based practical jokes on visitors.

It's not a book you'll quote in a research paper, but it is a fun book that may inspire you to pick up some more on the topic.

Today's Nonfiction Monday is over at Shelf-Employed.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Hark! A Vagrant!

Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton

Do you read Kate Beaton's most awesome webcomic Hark! A Vagrant? because you should.

In it, Beaton regularly makes history, Canadians, and classic literature hilarious. Often with a paragraph or two of commentary that is also hilarious. Listen to Charlotte and Emily Bronte tease Anne about her horrible taste in men. Doesn't she know that drunk losers who ruin everyone's lives are HOTTTTT? What if Ben Franklin's political cartoons had a modern editor? And, well, her retellings of Shakespeare just make me laugh a lot. I especially enjoy her comics where she sketches out the plots of books based solely on their covers. (In this collection, she has a series of books with covers by Gorey and some classic Nancy Drews.) Nothing is safe or sacred, but it's all hilarious.

Her comics are funny and awesome and hey look! There's a whole book of them! So you can read them when you're not on your computer. You should probably go read them.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Midnight in Peking

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China Paul French

It's taken me a few days for me to say anything about this book besides "I just... wow. I mean, it's just, Beijing and... wow. I mean... wow." And that goes for the rather explosive content and also the way French can spin out a story. (I mean, wow.)

In early January, 1937, the night of Russian Christmas, Pamela Werner was murdered. Horrifically. Her body was found the next morning outside the supposedly haunted Fox Tower in Beijing.* She lived with her father in the Tartar city, just outside the Foreign Legation, so the investigation is under the control of the Chinese police. But she's a British subject, the daughter of a former British Consul, and this isn't an average robbery gone wrong. To get around the British legation promoting an envoy to the case that they would control, the Chinese police appoint a detective from Tianjin, where Pamela went to boarding school. DCI Dennis was former Scotland Yard and wasn't under the legation's control. His hands were tied by the British as to what he could and couldn't do, but he wouldn't get in the way of the investigation.

But the British want to save face and hinder things at every turn. The Consul in Beijing has a personal dislike of Werner's father. National and personal politics play large. The White Russians who run the Badlands, the strip of seedy dive bars, opium dens, and brothels between the Legation Quarter and the Tartar city, aren't talking. In Tianjin, Pamela was a quiet school girl. In Beijing, she had several boyfriends and liked to party. Meanwhile, the Japanese are surrounding the city and getting ever closer. Everyone's fleeing-- either the investigation or the threat of war.

The murder remains unsolved, and the case technically open, but no one working on it. Pamela's father starts his own investigation and gathers his own evidence and reaches his own conclusions about who murdered his daughter. The Japanese get involved. Then they're not. Different personal and national politics at play, but they still have a major role in the investigation. Pamela's father has a compelling case to make against his main suspect (one that French agrees with) but the Consul and London are ignoring his pleas and evidence. Personal politics make it easy to write him off. The war makes it easy for his files and notes to get shoved in a drawer and lost (until French found them in an uncataloged file at The British National Archive in Kew.)

Was it the KMT? The Japanese? A jealous boyfriend? Was it a message to someone else? Or something far more sinister? (Answer: far far far more sinister.)

Secret nudist colonies, stateless prostitutes, political assassinations, and cocktail hours spent at smoky back tables gathering gossip, rumor, clues and evidence, Shura**... and a world on the brink of war. Basically, but John LeCarre and Eileen Chang in a blender and make the result a true story, and you get Midnight in Peking.

French has a gift for spinning out the suspense and tension. He deftly explains the back-history and the politics, making it understandable so the reader can get a sense of the all the factions at play, but without letting it get in the way of the story he's trying to tell. It's a powerful, gripping read.

I will warn you it's not for the faint of heart. Pamela's murder is truly horrific. Both the state of her body and the conclusions Werner reaches are beyond any Law & Order episode.

The end papers of a beautifully illustrated map of Old Peking, BUT they don't function as the most useful map. This book really needs a good map to help the reader get his or her head around the geography of everything.

It's a fascinating and distressing look at the last days of colonial Beijing. It's a page-turning murder mystery. And I mean... wow. Just... wow.



*Beijing = Peking. They are pronounced exactly the same. Throughout the book, French uses the old Wade-Giles system of Transliteration. Tianjin reverts back to Tientsin. I assume it's because it's more historically accurate. The Pinyin Romanization standard was invented by the communists over a decade after the events in this book. It also adds to that colonial old-world feel that pervades the drawing rooms and hotel bars where the action takes place. However, as someone whose mind works in Pinyin, this took a bit getting used to. Although, if you want to be super-technical about it, at the time this book takes place the city's name had been changed to Beiping/ Pei-p'ing because jing means capital and in 1928, Chaing Kai-Shek had moved the capital back in Nanjing (Nan means south, Bei means north) so Beijing was no longer the capital and so its name changed (back) to Beiping (ping means plain. The city had been named Beiping at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, when the Ming capital was at Nanjing. Before then, it had a few different names.) Until 1949 when Mao moved the capital back to Beijing and changed the name back. Interestingly, Nanjing never changes its name when it's not the capital. Thus endeth my supreme nerdiness.

**Shura was a half-Chinese, half-Russian of indeterminate sex who passed as man or woman, European or Chinese, depending on Shura's mood. Shura was a wine dealer, cabaret star, and a jewel thief. After the Bolsheviks murdered Shura's Tsarist official parents, Shura walked across Siberia and Mongolia to get to China. You know, AS YOU DO. Shura is a minor character, who greatly helps Werner's investigation, but I'm currently mildly obsessed.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Africans Thought of It

Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations Bathseba Opini and Richard B. Lee

They should really call this book "Cool Things they did in Ancient Africa." Topics covered include medicine, hunting, architecture, food, and music.

I very much appreciate that the authors don’t treat Africa as a monolithic place or culture. For instance, the section on metal working talks about different types of metals worked by different peoples—different metals, different objects, different uses. The communication section includes Egyptian hieroglyphics, Beninese gongs and Sudanese woodblocks. It also compares a traditional Maasai animal horn with a modern vuvuzela.

The design is bright and bold, with lots and lots of pictures. Because so many cultures are discussed within each topic, most of it’s presented in a series of pull-out boxes. (If it’s mostly boxes, are they still pull-out boxes?) Because of the way the information is presented, the book is very browseable and readers can dip in and out of it, although it’s interesting enough that once they dip in, they probably won’t dip out until they’ve read the whole thing.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Flesh and Blood So Cheap

Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy Albert Marrin

It's probably about time I got around to reviewing the book that I nominated for the MG/YA Nonfiction Cybils.

While this book is about the tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, it's about so much more. Much of the book is about placing the fire in context. We're more than half-way through the book before the actual fire. Marrin instead details the immigration boom between the Civil War and WWI. He explores the tenements and the life that many of the Triangle workers led. There's some great stuff on photographer Jacob Riis and income inequality on Manhattan. There's a history of the sweatshop and how garment manufacture moved from home-based piecework to the factory. We also get information on the labor movement up until that point in time.

And then comes the devastation of the fire and the aftermath-- both in the local sense of judgements and sentences handed down (or not) and the larger impact on worker's rights.

There's also great information on how the mob became linked with unions and the history of the garment industry since the Triangle fire.

I most appreciated the end section on the modern sweatshop and the double-edged sword of sweatshop labor. Not even that it allows us cheap clothing, but that while, to a Western eye, these jobs seem horrible and inhumane, often in the locale of the sweatshop, its seen as a very good job with a much higher earning potential and better working conditions than anything else out there. It's a complicated issue that has more gray than we like to think, and I was happy to see it so well presented in a book for younger readers.

All in all the fire, the context, and the effects are presented and explained really well. There are several black-and-white photographs to illustrate the text and bring turn-of-the-century New York to life.

Today's Nonfiction Monday Round-up is over at Books Together.


Book Provided by... my wallet

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Bloody Times

Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis James L Swanson

In my review of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, (Swenson's other book for young readers) I pointed out that there was no bibliography or source notes included.

Bloody Times doesn’t have source notes or a bibliography (beyond “Bloody Crimes [the adult book this book is based on]...contains an extensive bibliography for further reading) but it does have a Further Reading list, a who’s who, and a glossary. (The glossary words are also bolded in the main text which is nice, but I found their choice of which words to include a bit... odd.) So, the back matter is better than Chasing Lincoln’s Killer but still incredibly disappointing.

The book itself covers two journeys-- the one that Lincoln’s funeral train took and the one that Jefferson Davis took between the fall of Richmond and his eventual capture. I found the Davis sections much more appealing because most of it was new to me, and, let’s face it, evading capture and trying to not end the war is just going to be more action-packed than a funeral train.

The main text didn’t pack and action and oomph of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, mainly because the events didn’t lend themselves to the same sort of storytelling. It won’t be as well-liked by readers.

Most disappointing? Swanson thoroughly debunks the story that Jefferson Davis was wearing his wife’s clothing when he was finally captured. I always rather loved that mental image.

Overall, a solid effort, but won’t win over the non-history lovers like his first one did.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Ghosts in the Fog

Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion Samantha Seiple

How’s this for an opening?

On June 7, 1942, Japan invaded Alaska.

On June 10, 1942, the U.S. Navy denied that it happened: “None of our inhabited islands or rocks are troubled with uninvited visitors up to this time.”

This is a terrifying story on several levels.

The Japanese invaded small villages in the Western Aleutian islands. They invaded military installations. The Pacific fleet had taken a huge hit 6 months early in Pearl Harbor and most of what was left was finishing up the epic battle at Midway. The small part of the navy that was supposed to protect the giant Alaska was 1000 miles away, ignoring the intelligence and thinking the Japanese would attack further east.

Throughout the Aleutians is the oppressive fog that kept the Americans from being able to see their enemy.

The battles were bloody, hand-to-hand combat and absolutely horrific for both sides.

At the same time an entire village of Aleuts had been taken back to Japan as POWs where they were starved and beaten. The ones that had been evacuated by the navy (and only the Aleuts were mandatory evacuated. White people could stay.) had it just has bad. Overcrowded conditions with no running water or electricity. Disease swept through the evacuation camps with no medical care or supplies. Able-bodied men were put to (largely unpaid) work and taken away from their dying families.

Seiple tells this tale with tension and suspense, while still making it age-appropriate for middle school. Lots of pictures illustrate the text.

I wanted a little more about the civilian issues and a more detailed map, but overall this is a gripping book. The history is unknown, and the writing style keeps the pages turning. Highly recommended.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at Apples with Many Seeds.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Raggin' Jazzin' Rockin'

Raggin' Jazzin' Rockin': A History of American Musical Instrument Makers Susan VanHecke

Instead of discussing the musicians that changed American music-- both classical and popular-- this book discusses those who created and made the instruments that would forever change the American sound. It starts with Avdeis Zildjian, a Turkish immigrant candymaker who, when the time came to inherit the family cymbal business brought it over the the US. In the US, he talked with drummers and musicians and created their dream cymbals-- special orders that are now the standards in any drum kit. We see Steinway-- a German immigrant fighting the notion that only European pianos were of quality and building a piano that is now thought to the best world wide. We learn the history of Conn brass instruments, Ludwig drums, Hammond electric organs, the Moog synthesizer, Martin acoustic guitars, and the Fender electrics.

It's an interesting and fascinating way to look at American music. In addition to music history, it's also business history-- how advertising and other activities affected business. One thing I found really interesting was how companies survived the Depression-- many innovations that brought instruments into our homes came out of a desire to survive those tough economic times. Also interesting was how many factories had to stop manufacturing instruments during WWII and during those years instead manufactured things for the war effort-- by order of the government.

Lots of pull-out boxes introduce readers to different instruments and the musicians and musical styles that made them famous.

My only complaint is that each chapter stands alone, even though in later years many of these companies merged or had their paths intertwine in other ways, but this really isn't discussed, which I think would have been interesting either within the existing chapters or by adding something onto the end that talks about how and why these things happened.

Overall though, I found it well-designed, and fascinating.


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Chasing Lincoln's Killer

Chasing Lincoln's Killer James L. Swanson

This book got so much good press when it came out and was even shortlisted for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and all I can ask is WHY?!

Ok, I know why. It's an exciting read-- Swanson can certainly tell a story. But, it's also deeply, deeply flawed.

The biggest flaw? NO SOURCE NOTES. No citations, no bibliography, just an assurance from the author that everything inside quotation marks is really true. Let me repeat that-- NO SOURCE NOTES. Now, this is a teen version of Swanson's adult title, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Manhunt has an 18 page bibliography and 24 pages of endnotes. Chasing Lincoln's Killer has none.

Other minor issues-- simplification to the point of being wrong. Maybe it was only this one point, but this is the only one I'm super sure on-- the 11th Street Bridge does NOT lead from DC to Maryland. It's in the middle of DC. I drive across it multiple times a day to get to and from work. Yes, it closed at 9pm and Booth and Herold had to talk their way across the bridge long after it closed. Swanson makes a huge deal because this was the bridge out of DC, this was the only way to get to Maryland. And... no. Crossing the bridge led to Southeast DC and was the easiest and fastest way to get to Maryland, but they were still in DC once they got to the other side and there are ways to get to Maryland that don't involve crossing the Anacostia River. And it's not like the Maryland borders of DC have changed since the city was first created. Yes, for Booth and Herold to escape Washington, crossing the bridge was of vital importance, BUT Swanson over simplifies it so much that it ends up being plain wrong. Even better? The map at the back of the book shows the bridge as being in the middle of town.

There was also some potential fictionalization. Swanson talks about Booth's mood, the tension he felt, and this thought process. Maybe there are sources for this, but I wouldn't know BECAUSE THERE WERE NO SOURCE NOTES.

He has another book, Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis, which was nominated for a Cybil this year. It's another teen edition of an adult book, Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis. Let's see if it's any better. I'm not holding my breath though, because the library and book community so celebrated Chasing Lincoln's Killer.


Today's nonfiction round up is over at 100 Scope Notes.


Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils 2009 consideration

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Nonfiction Monday: On the Texas Trail of Cabeza de Vaca

On the Texas Trail of Cabeza De Vaca Peter Lourie

There's a subset of children's nonfiction where a large part of the book is less about the result of research and more about the process of the research. Scientists in the Field does this and it's part of what made Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry so awesome.

On the Texas Trail is about Lourie's attempts to retrace the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, a conquistador who was shipwrecked near Galveston, walked across Mexico to the Pacific and then back inland before hitting Mexico City, where he was able to get a ride back home to Spain. Throughout his travels, de Vaca was dependent on the Native Americans he met along the way. He learned many of their langauges and grew to respect them as people equal to Europeans.

There are competing theories on the route de Vaca took. Lourie very briefly discusses this, and very briefly discusses which path he thinks is the right one, and why. And then he very briefly discusses how he visits some points on that path to try to match them up with de Vaca's writings of his journies.

Overall, it was just too short to adequetely cover de Vaca, the scholarly controversy of the path of his journey, and Lourie's travels. I wanted and neede dmore. However, I really appreciate Lourie's honesty in his failures. He spends a large amount of time searching for a canyon of pine trees-- this canyon being on the key pieces of evidence. And he comes and sees and leaves. Only he didn't actually see what he thought he saw:

I was like the conquistadors blinded by their desire to find gold. I had seen what I wanted to see. In my desire for historical discovery, I had made pine trees out of cedars.

Roundup is over at Playing by the Book.


Book Provided by... the publisher for 2009 Cybils consideration

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Poetry Friday: Denied, Deported, Detained

Statue of Liberty Dreams of Emma Lazarus, Awakens with Tears on her Cheeks

Naomi Shihab Nye

Give me your tired, your poor...
But not too tired, not too poor.
And we will give you the red tape,
the long line, white bread in its wrapper,
forms to fill out, and the looks, the stares
that say you are not where or what you should be,
not quirw, not yet, you will never live up to
us.

Your huddled masses yearning to be free...
Can keep huddling. Even here. Sorry to say this.
Neighborhoods with poor drainage
Potholes, stunning gunshots...
You'll teem here too.

You dreamed a kinder place, a tree
no one would cut, a cabinet to store your clothes.
Simple jobs brining payment on time.
Someone to stand up for you.
The way I used to do, for everyone. Holding my torch
to get you to your new home in this country stitched
of immigrants from the get-go...
But you would always be homesick. No one said that.

I was the doorkeeper, concierge, welcome chief,
But rules have changed and I'm bouncer at the big club.
Had no say in it, hear me? Any chnace I could be, again,
the one I used to be?

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
It's still up high. At night I tuck it into my robe.
And worry. What will happen to you?
Every taunt, every turn-around,
hand it over. That's not what you came here for.
I'll fold it into my rubbing rad,
Bring back a shine.

Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration Ann Bauseum

Well, the call has gone out for 2011 CYBILS judges (you should totally sign up!) So I decided it was about time I FINALLY finished going through my notes and writing up the last lingering books that were nominated in 2009. (I read them all in 2009, I just didn't get around to reviewing all of them.)

This book opens with the poem I posted above. There are 5 chapters-- Exlcuded tells to the story of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and anti-Chinese sentitment during the late 19th century. Deported looks at the case of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, Russian immigrants who became involved in the labor and anarchy movements at the beginning of the twentieth century and were deported for it after living in the US for decades. Goldman was already a citizen. Denied tells the of the ill-fated voyage of the St. Louis-- a ship of Jewish refugees who were denied port in Cuba and the US before returning to Hitler's Europe. Detained tells of Japanese internment during WWII. Exploited looks at the long history of Mexican immigration and the role of migrant workers in the US economy.

I wanted to like this one more than I did. It's beautifully done visually. The history is well explained and Bausum ties it in well with broader trends at the time as well as current events (and other events that happened between then and now.) The title chapters focus on just one family or person to give faces and names to some of the effected people. But... there is something about this book that I can't put my finger on that kept it from being truly awesome.

I ended up liking Bausum's Unraveling Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Home Front During World War I which I reviewed in March much better.

Today's Poetry Roundup is over at Miss Rumphius Effect.


Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils 2009 consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Booking Through Thursday

Today's Booking Through Thursday is a must answer, even if there's only one minute left in Thursday (at least in my time zone)

Sometimes I feel like the only person I know who finds reading history fascinating. It’s so full of amazing-yet-true stories of people driven to the edge and how they reacted to it. I keep telling friends that a good history book (as opposed to some of those textbooks in school that are all lists and dates) does everything a good novel does–it grips you with real characters doing amazing things.

Am I REALLY the only person who feels this way? When is the last time you read a history book? Historical biography? You know, something that took place in the past but was REAL.

Regular readers know that I love history. It's the second largest section on my bookshelves (After fiction.) I even majored in it instead of literature. I think one of the reasons why I love studying history over literature is because history is all about the story, the who, what, where, when, and why. It isn't about the metaphor or craft which are things I enjoy analyzing, but not as much as character and plot. History is all character and plot.

So to answer the question, when was the last time I read a history book? Yesterday.

The last two books I've read were history. One, A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream will be reviewed in an upcoming issue of School Library Journal. It's a biography of a ballet dancer in post-Cultural Revolution, pre-Tian'anmen China and her experiences at the Beijing Dance Academy. The other, Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History is about the Peshtigo fire, a largely forgotten tragedy. I reviewed it yesterday.

My book I'm currently lusting after is history-- To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918. WWI, dissent, and England? YES PLEASE!

History is gripping and beautiful. Heartbreaking and inspiring. It is the story of us as humanity. Sometimes I marvel at the fact we survived it all, but we're still here, just making even more history.



Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.